Corin Hewitt
A Parrot in Parallel Proposes
January 11 - March 14, 2020

In 1995 a firefighter from Damascus, Maryland named Brian Wilson lost his ability to speak.
Fourteen years later, two parrots taught him to speak again.

According to an article in the British Telegraph from 2009, the man reported "Two birds taught me to talk again," he said. "I had such a bad head injury I was never supposed to talk any more than a two-year-old." But two parrots "just kept talking to me and talking to me”. "Then all of a sudden, a word popped out, then two, then more."

"You wonder why I rescue birds? They helped me to talk again, so now I take care of them".

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There are two quaker parrots in the building.
They live with the building’s superintendent.
At least one is now on the other side of the south wall of the room.
The other may be in the room.
Most of the time they live together.
If you are here with one of them, they are now apart.

In this arrangement, they exist in mirror formation,
one apart from the other
yet facing each other through the wall.
Reflecting and communicating what is on the other side.

The walls are thin.
Parrots pay close attention to sound.
Sometimes they mimic words, sometimes the sounds of the building.
Vistors in this room hear the parrots on the other side of the wall,
repeating their words.

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Starting on Saturday and Sunday, January 11 and 12th from 12-5pm (and Sundays 12-5pm after this date)
visitors are invited to make a 30-minute appointment to sit with up to six people to be with one of two parrots.
Visitors will sit
in a circle or a square
facing inward
toward the parrot.
First in silence and then speaking together.

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Sign up here for a slot HERE and we hope to see you.

Corin Hewitt’s installations, performances, sculptures, photographs, and videos investigate relationships within architecture and domestic life. Hewitt received his BA from Oberlin College and his MFA from Bard College. Solo exhibitions of Hewitt’s work include Whitney Museum of American Art, MOCA Cleveland, ICA VCU, the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, the Seattle Museum of Art, Laurel Gitlen, New York, Taxter and Spengemann, NY, and Western Bridge, Seattle. His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo; Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerp; the Memmo Foundation, Rome; the Sao Paolo Biennial in Brazil; the Whitney Museum, New York; the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Galerie Perrotin, Paris; with the Public Art Fund in New York; and the Wanas Foundation in Sweden. Hewitt was a recipient of the 2014–5 American Academy Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2011, and a Joan Mitchell Fellowship in 2010. In 2015, Mousse Publications released a 300-page monograph, entitled Seven Performances featuring six years of work. He is an Associate Professor and Graduate Director of Sculpture and Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University.