The Flight They Stole

The bird’s natural feathers have been torn away and replaced with copper plates stitched together by wire, while a rope ensures it can no longer take flight. Its living body is altered into something heavier, more valuable as a material than as a free being. The work reflects on oppression as both physical violence and a process of commodification, where consumerist values replace what is natural with what is profitable, reducing life to an object of control. Yet the crystal suspended above quietly holds the possibility of hope, suggesting that even when freedom is restrained, the longing for liberation cannot be entirely erased. It asks: What remains of a creature when its wings are traded for the weight of value?