Donna Conlon

Bandada (Flock) is an oxymoronic animation inspired by the effects of light pollution on birds. Birds, insects, and other animals are drawn to artificial light sources. Migratory flocks often are diverted by our lights, circling them over and over, and lose vital energy as they are distracted from their migration path. A famous example is New York’s 9/11 memorial, two powerful skyward pointing light beams. Migratory birds were trapped by the light, circling them, crashing into nearby buildings, or falling dead from exhaustion. The light beams are now turned off intermittently to allow migrant birds to escape the fatal attraction of the lights.

Donna Conlon is represented by Diablo Rosso, Panamá and Espacio Mínimo, Madrid. Motion Graphics for Bandada (Flock) by Frank Zamora.

Bandada (Flock) is part of Monumomentum: A TAD Project.

Monumomentum: Scale shifts in space/time.

Curator Statement: With Monumomentum, we play with scale shifts in size, distance, duration, and perspective in ways that rethink routine experiences and the everyday.

TAD stands for Temporary Alternative Duty (often used in reference to labor), but also an acronym for Toby And Don, the two curators behind TAD Projects: Tobias Fike and Donald Fodness. Formed in 2022, to generate exhibitions and art related experiences. With a DIY spirit and desire to experiment curatorially, TAD sets out to strengthen, bridge and build community through art. We emphasize the alternative.

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Artist Bio:

Donna Conlon (b. 1966, Atlanta, GA) lives and works in Panama City, Panama.

Her practice is based on observations of her everyday surroundings; she analyzes the meaning in the ordinary and the overlooked. Like an archaeologist of the present, she focuses on details of her immediate environment to reveal the social, political and environmental contradictions inherent to our contemporary lifestyle. Conlon has exhibited widely, both her individual work and collaborations with fellow artist Jonathan Harker, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2022), Tate St. Ives (2021), Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (2020), Met Breuer, NY (2019), Kadist, San Francisco (2018), Pérez Art Museum, Miami (2014), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY (2014), El Museo del Barrio, NY (2011), Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach (2011), Istanbul Modern Art Museum (2006), and in events such as Prospect New Orleans (2017), the Asunción Biennale, Paraguay (2015), Mercosul Biennale, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2011), and the Venice Biennale (2005). Conlon received an Anonymous Was a Woman award (2022) and a Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation grant for emerging artists (2007). Her individual and collaborative works are in collections including the Kadist Foundation, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museo de Arte de Lima, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Tate Modern. Conlon earned an M.A. in Biology from the University of Kansas and an MFA in Sculpture from Maryland Institute College of Art.