One-by-one is a 3D installation about American Cliff Swallows which includes three main parts: 1) a 40x29 inch wall piece of swallow nests, 2) a free-hanging full-color adult swallow in front of the nests, and 3) multiple swallow silhouettes that hang at various lengths to cast shadows on the wall piece, conveying the process of nest building.
All text and images ©Kimberly Moss
One-by-one was done in response to time I spent in Ledges State Park, located in central Iowa. Set apart from the nearby farmland, the park features sandstone ledges embodying unique geological structures and represents over 96% of Iowa’s biodiversity.
It is hard to miss the industrious and well-adapted American Cliff Swallows when visiting Ledges State Park. A flurry of activity abounds in April, when nest building begins, and continues into the summer; swallows swoop down to the creek bank to collect mud, form into pellets, and layer onto the walls of their cliff dwellings, one-by-one. The nests they create easily include over 900 pellets each and are built in extensive avian colonies. This building, shaping, taking away from one site to carefully construct one-of-a-kind structures that are perfectly suited to nestle upon a sandstone ridge is mesmerizing, let alone amazing. As an artist, I am drawn not only to the form and structure of these nests, but to the repetition in the process, the detail, intricacy, and care in building and protecting their place at Ledges. They work together to support, to protect, to thrive.
©Kimberly Moss