in hope we must reside

When the conversation around a potential jewellery collaboration first began with artist Louis Carnell, a few elements were discussed: repetition, digital noise, and most importantly, a zoomed-in iPhone recording of an ordinary white pigeon, batting its wing a couple of times before landing again on the pavement.

A series of frames from this short video he'd taken would inform all visuals surrounding his upcoming music release.

In fact, this motif of a lone bird had already become a recurrent appearance on his Instagram stories. 
Sometimes pixelated, often back-lit by a sort of cold, powdery, golden sun.

"What's with the pigeons?" I asked, unironically pecking at two runny eggs Florentine.
Their cooing is comforting, a memory of childhood. 
Later a familiar sound, mundane and understated.
And more recently, a spiritual nod. 
Companionship in grief - in *hope*.

What unfolded a few days after that meeting was rather esoteric. 
Suddenly, on the pavement: a pair of perfectly separated pigeon wings, still connected by a series of bones and ligaments.

No flesh, no head, no legs - only feathers and joints, arranged neatly on the side of road.
Too precise to be the work of a carnivorous predator, we thought, and the alternative was rather dark.

Witchcraft? Voodoo ritual? Serial killer in training?
There is no way to know for sure - and we'll have to content ourselves with uncertainty for now. 

Over the course of the summer, bird remains of various sorts would make a regular appearance on our respective walks. It might have just been a sort of pattern-recognition-prompted interest, or maybe it was something more, *a nudge*.
Regardless, there was something about these occurrences that felt significant, not random.

Many people dislike pigeons. In fact, I believe that is part of their appeal.
Their contemporary association with dirt and nuisance sits in amusing contrast with the biblical expectations set by their dove ancestor.
The feeling resides somewhere between disgust and aspiration. 

Discover the collection here.