The Bird That Never Flew
The Bird That Never Flew, a World premiere arts performance highlighting plight of endangered birds, will be held at Glasgow Cathedral in September!
About The Bird That Never Flew
The global premiere of a new work by Glasgow based British-Finnish artist and composer Hanna Tuulikki is to be performed at Glasgow Cathedral later this year.
Commissioned by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) with Arts&Heritage, Tuulikki’s extraordinary new vocal musical composition the bird that never flew explores the ancient Cathedral’s roots in ornithological entanglements, bringing together sacred lament and ecological political protest to raise the alarm for critically endangered birds and the impacts of climate change.
Taking place live on Friday 8 September and Saturday 9 September, the innovative piece will be performed by Tuulikki, alongside award winning Scottish vocalist Mischa Macpherson and Glasgow-based voice and sound artist Lucy Duncombe.
Drawing on sacred music traditions, myth, and ecology, Tuulikki's new composition for three voices, field recordings and electronics, weaves together what the robin knows of past, present, and future. With its distinctive red breast and warbling song, the European robin plays a prominent role in the life of Glasgow’s patron saint, St Mungo, who is said to have brought a dead bird back to life by holding it in his hands, smoothing its feathers, and praying until the lifeless creature revived.
In a time where the numbers of wild birds in Britain have declined drastically, Mungo’s story of empathy with nature prompts us to consider how they might support other species faced with the dangers of climate change.
This urgent new work follows on from Tuulikki’s silent ‘bat rave’, Echo in the dark (2022) at Arbroath’s Hospitalfield, and Seals’kin (2022) commissioned for the Biennial of Sydney and shown at British Art Show 9. Memorialising biodiversity loss, the bird that never flew is an animal fable for tomorrow which brings the alarm call of nature into a space of human sanctuary, sounding a red alert through a cacophony of human and avian harmony.
As well as the two performances in September, Tuulikki is also inviting audiences on a “Dawn Chorus Walk” on Sunday 10 September at 6am in Glasgow’s Necropolis for a deep listening exploration of the urban bird habitat that inspired the work. Those involved can walk, listen, and reflect on what they can do to raise the alarm for the precious bird species they share their city with.
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