They looked like peppers ground into the sky, then black silk ribbons and stains spread overhead.
Every spring, hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes converge in the Platte River Valley in central Nebraska for nearly a million years. For about a month, birds rest and refuel the annual paths that breed in winter, from the southern part of Mexico to the Arctic Circle of Canada, Alaska and Siberia. Jane Goodall, who tries to travel to witness this phenomenon every year, calls it “arguably one of the most epic events in nature.”
Over the last weekend, 65-year-old artist and former fashion model Sheila Burger took her from St. Louis to New York City to frame a herd of faraway friends and witnessed the luxuries with her.
“This viewing rivals the safari you'd have in Africa,” said Burger, whose hat is decorated with golden grain. “We saw the gorillas in Rwandan, the elephant in Kenya, the lion in Tanzania and the Wild Tee Beast. This is a good thing.”
Some audiences like Burger's husband, writer Michael Lips, who has become a lawyer who has been living at the Chelsea Hotel since 1994, were originally from Nebraska, but used to fly out of the shed. The congregation included Grammy Award-winning singer Rosanne Cash. married authors Kurt Andersen and Anne Creamer. Thomas and Alice Tisch, MOMA councillors. and artist and garden designer Dana Westling and his partner, Trevor Potter, founding director of Campaign Legal Centre. Martha Stewart was also invited, but business obligations forced her to resign from the festival at the end. She was disappointed. “The QVC can wait, but the crane cannot,” she lamented later. “But it's life.” In comfort, Stewart has made an immediate plan to see the relocation next year. “The 'Don't get in the way' is already on my calendar,” she said.
The Prairie Party began in Omaha and began with a tour of the Jocelyn Museum and a visit to the studio of sculptor Jun Kaneko. The next day, everyone drove west for 2.5 hours to the small city of Kearney. Mr. Berger was to decorate the public sculpture he set up at Yarnie Heritage Park, a public park that turned to 80 acres of Cornfield, founded in 1998 by local investment banker Michael Yarnie.
When Janney learned of Berger's work a few years ago – she recently installed a giant mirror bird sculpture on Governor Island in New York City – he asked her to make a Nebraska bird Meadowlake for the park.
“She sent me the drawing,” recalled Jannie. “I said: 'How big do you make it? Because no matter what size you see it, it's not big enough. Make it bigger!” And she did, and it's simply gorgeous. ”
Designed in New York City, manufactured from Chinese stainless steel, Berger's Meadowlak, an altitude of 8 feet, is coloured with pigments that are sometimes used in the finishes of highly specialized cars, installed during crane movements last year. At that time, Berger realized that her state bird production should interact with some form of moving crane. She said, as Crane said “at the same time and ugly and beautiful,” and “they all liked that they had this red heart in the center of their face. Inspiration, she made small masks like what a superhero might wear in stainless steel, and suggested that every year the meadow lark could wear it at the length of their movement.
On a grey Sunday, around 60 people gathered at Yanny Heritage Park. Mr. Berger was featured by Kearney Mayor Jonathan Nikkira in the park's pavilion, suspended by glass artist Dale Chiffrey, in an elaborate, colorful chandelier.
“We are grateful to be in a community that values progress, but we believe that the human experience is not perfect with food, shelters and clothing alone,” Nikkira said. “So today we focus on nature and art: the beauty that comes from the human heart and hand, and the beauty that we receive from the hand of God.”
Wore a long shirring coat, Prada boots and Robert Downey Jr.'s blue-tone sunglasses, Ms. Burger thanked the mayor who had planned to join the group that night to see the crane, but instead was recruited to take a prom photo with her daughter, high school student. Mr. Berger described her sculpture as playful and childlike, citing Nebraskan poet Ted Cother.
Burger smiled. “What?” she asked, “Is this meadow waiting?” she smiled again. “This Meadowlark is waiting today! Wear that mask and welcome you not only to the crane.” She thanked everyone for coming and taking part in “This crazy thing to put masks on birds.” Her 26-year-old daughter, Nicolaia Lips, memoir and editor of ID Magazine, had stood up to accept her.
Outside, the screams of the wind and layered scores of distant I-80 traffic were occasionally stabbed by crane cries. The crowd stuck masks on the sculpture with Allen Wrench with the help of Eric Helliegel, the city of Carney Parks Director. She retreated and praised her work.
“I'm not religious, but I like rituals,” explained Berger. “And at the beginning of the meal there is a Passover prayer you say: “Every hungry will come and let us eat,” the meadow continued.
Growing up in Omaha, RIPS described a kind of constitutional humility as an inherent Nebraska trait, which stemmed from the state's pioneering history. Nebraska people “can't speak in a self-provided language,” he continued. He said his wife did this too, and it wasn't unrelated to her project.
Stewart, an old friend of Rips and an old friend of Berger, who participated in almost all of Berger's public art installations, said he praised the artist's commitment to transforming the bird into a monument. “There are no birds every day!” she explained. “The very interesting thing is that she can make something as soft as such a big sized bird and it can be done so beautifully. And I know what it takes to make stainless steel look like that.”
When dusk fell after the sculpture park ceremony, a group of 16 friends were convened at the Iain Nicolson Audubon Center in Rowe Sanctuary, where they celebrated their 50th anniversary the day before. Founded in 1974 with a 782-acre purchase funded by a New Jersey school teacher, Row is now almost seven times its original size and includes river waterways, pastures and farmland. After a brief info video and binocular distribution, everyone set up a single file for bird blinds. Due to the minimal lines and silver wood appearance, this structure resembles the Brewer building in Marcel via the Island of Fire.
By 7:35pm the sky was dark gray as water. Some dark cranes were able to rise high. I could hear the strange, distant noise of the coyote echoing.
“It often calms down a bit when we start to wonder why our guests are here,” said Lizzie Gilbert, development director for the National Audubon Association. “We're all going to bet on when the first bird will land. I think it's 8:02.”
The group was instructed to wear warm (and dark) clothes. Scattering down jackets, they huddle into small clusters and are unconscious participants in the world's most subtle costume party.
“The crane on the ground!” whispers, Dudley Fiscop is a guide who turned to a master scientist science teacher, dressed in full camouflage. It was 7:42.
By 8pm, the cranes had originated from all directions, darkening the sky like ink blots, each landing in shallow water that looked like slow motion. The low light made the scene resemble black and white photographs.
The previous week, 736,000 cranes were counted. It's the best ever recorded. I felt that at least as much had happened tonight.
“It's very meditative,” whispered Roseanne Cash, whom Burger met over 20 years ago through their mutual friend, “Mash” star Mary Kayplace. “It looks like an etching,” Cash's breath was visible in the darkness. “If anyone else had told me, I would say, 'Hey, come in Nebraska and see some cranes. It's going to be pretty hard to get there and it's going to be freezing cold.” But I never thought about it again, as it was Sheila, and of course it turned out to be much better than you've ever dreamed of. ”
