Dead Bird Dinner Pt II: Pit Firing + Community Ceramic Potluck
About this Event
Join artist Michael Medeiros for the second chapter of Dead Bird Dinner at Haskell Public Gardens—a day-long pit firing, an ancient ceramic firing technique that uses wood, fire, and earth to transform clay, culminating in a community potluck dinner served on ceramics fired earlier that same day.
Dead Bird Dinner continues a collaborative practice developed with UMass Amherst Biology PhD candidate Rozy Bathrick, whose exhibition Reflections on Collisions examined bird-strike mortality caused by large glass windows on newer buildings across the UMass campus. The project highlights how a handful of simple changes to architectural glass can dramatically reduce these deaths, bringing that conversation into a communal, participatory setting.
For the dinner, Medeiros will present a full ceramic dinner set impressed with birds collected by the UMass Natural Sciences Department, continuing a collaboration that previously produced flower pots impressed with campus bird specimens and planted with seeds germinated from birds' stomachs. The meal will be accompanied by an original soundtrack and conversation contextualizing the work and its environmental stakes.
The pit firing begins at 8:00 AM and visitors are welcome to stop by throughout the day to observe the firing process. That evening, once the ceramics have been removed from the pit and cooled, the freshly fired dinnerware will be arranged as guests gather for a community potluck beginning at 6:00 PM. All are welcome to participate.
Agenda
🕑: 08:00 AM - 06:00 PM
Pit-firing
🕑: 06:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Community Potluck
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
