2015 – Year Of The Pigeon, Surely?

Back in 2007 I raised the issue that every other animal has it’s own Chinese year, so why not a pigeon? I brought it up again in 2011 when it was the rabbit’s turn, and still no year. I mean we’re talking rat, ox, pig, rooster, the list goes on. 2014 is, I’ve just discovered, the year of the horse. A fucking horse? Since when has a horse been able to fly using hedges for navigation? Or carried messages for hundreds of miles whilst being shot at by enemy fire? And when was the last time a horse wrote a decent song or some poignant poetry? Thought so.

For a while I put it down to a dislike by the Chinese of pigeons generally. I won’t bore you with the gruesome details, but if you enter ‘Chinese cooked pigeon’ into any search engine, and check out the images, you’ll see what I mean.

However, I think with all this talk of emerging pigeon artists, we could be onto something. Surely creating successful cut-through statement art is enough to get any animal a year? Currently 2015 is year of the sheep. Pointless. Change it. Year of the Pigeon. It’s got to be done.

So, I’ve been head to the ground down here since my last communication with NYC artist, Gary Pigeon. Word is there’s a talented Brighton based pigeon called Gerald who’s been into his art for a while now. He’s a bit older, so doesn’t go out much these days. Kind of semi-retired. He’s also only got one leg thanks to an accident he had with a washing line and some chewing gum. I’ve been told not to mention it if we meet. On the case in tracking him down though. He sounds really interesting.

In the meantime, this made me laugh. Gary sent it last week. He went out with a mate to scope out a location for his next project, and nearly got busted.

Hilarious:

“Po po all up in my grill!” Was the message from Gary, whatever the fuck that means.

Love the fact his mate hid his face, like he wasn’t already on CCTV. Total genius.

Good luck with the search, Gary. Let me know how you get on.

In the meantime, I’m thinking of hitting the skies of London on Friday to check out the welcoming in of Year of The Horse celebrations in Chinatown. See what kind of exposure we can expect when our time comes.