Untitled #750 (Bird Wedding Cake)
Image courtesy of the donor
Object Label
Petah Coyne’s early work incorporated decaying materials—fish, logs, roots, and hay—into sculptures that plumbed extremes of fantasy and the macabre, interiors and the outdoors, joy and alienation. By 1993, Coyne adapted her materials to ensure her work’s longevity and to draw from her family’s Irish Catholic traditions, as reflected in the artificial flowers and birds, white satin, and up to 150 layers of candle wax in Untitled #750 (Bird Wedding Cake). Seemingly fragile in its creation and hanging display, the work is weighted by its materials and metaphors, which allude to the deceptive fantasies of femininity and marriage seen from the vantage point of white American girlhood.
Caption
Petah Coyne American, born 1953. Untitled #750 (Bird Wedding Cake), 1993. Wax, wire mesh, steel, metal chain, artificial flowers (silk?), artificial birds, white fabric (satin?), overall: 38 x 32 x 32 in., 260 lb. (96.5 x 81.3 x 81.3 cm, 117.9kg). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Rothfeld Family Collection in memory of Harriet Weill Rothfeld and Designated Purchase Fund, 2008.17.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of the donor, CUR.2008.17.2_donor_photograph.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Untitled #750 (Bird Wedding Cake)
Date
1993
Medium
Wax, wire mesh, steel, metal chain, artificial flowers (silk?), artificial birds, white fabric (satin?)
Classification
Dimensions
overall: 38 x 32 x 32 in., 260 lb. (96.5 x 81.3 x 81.3 cm, 117.9kg)
Credit Line
Gift of the Rothfeld Family Collection in memory of Harriet Weill Rothfeld and Designated Purchase Fund
Accession Number
2008.17.2
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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Frequent Art Questions
Tell me more.
Petah Coyne self identifies as a "lapsed Catholic." Her work explores her complicated relationship to beauty, femininity and death.When she first moved to NYC, she worked with terminally ill patients, used taxidermied birds in her creations and even dead fish on occasion.Thank you.Tell me more.
This is an example of the wax sculptures Coyne was working on between 1990 and 2004.Coyne says that she forces herself to "change continuously. I always have to invent a new language."
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