Vancouver artist Matthew Ballantyne, a dedicated birdwatcher, is fascinated by woodpeckers. While they are often dismissed as noisy and destructive nuisances, he finds them amusing. "They're funny creatures," he says."They're constantly doing things that just feel comic." Ballantyne, a poet and self-described "lapsed ironist," spans histories of amateur naturalism, conceptual art and wildlife photography in this latest body of work. "Art history is just filled with birds," he says. "So, I wanted to find a way to put my own spin on that – and give me an excuse to spend more time birdwatching." He says his art, which incorporates photography, video, taxidermy and works made from found materials, is "a search for empathy in an enchanted but tragic world." In this video, Ballantyne discusses his exhibition, The Life of a Woodcutter, on view from July 10 to July 31, at the Mónica Reyes Gallery in Vancouver. ■
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