Room with a View, 2019-20
Bronze
40 x 34 x 32 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Neighborhood 2, 2020
Bronze
183 x 44 x 30 cm
Courtesy of the artist
The Dangling Room, 2019-20
Bronze with brass wire
96 x 53 x 48 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Parrot Apartment, 2022-24
Bronze
182 x 104 x 90 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Since 2016, Joseph Havel has been working with his African Grey Parrot, Hannah. Their artistic collaboration initially emerged as play, when Hannah began carving balsa wood that uncannily resembled Giacometti figures. Over time, Hannah’s creations evolved, forming surprising shapes from wood and cardboard that reflect her natural instincts as a builder within parrot societies. The pieces were later cast in bronze, imbuing Hannah’s ephemeral performance with permanence. Parrots have demonstrated the ability to think abstractly and creatively, and are considered among the most intelligent non-human animals. Despite anthropocentric views of intellect, parrots possess the intelligence of a three-year-old human. Havel considers Hannah’s intelligence as equal but different, challenging our misconception that considers the human superior to other life forms.
Joseph Havel was born in Minneapolis (Minnesota), USA; he lives and works in Houston (Texas), USA, and Ménerbes, France.
Sculptor Joseph Havel is a master of transforming the domestic and mundane into the poetic and timeless, where things mutate from the ordinary to the otherworldly, described by Havel as uncovering “the activity of still objects.” During the pandemic, he made work with his African grey parrot, Hannah, in an original and playful demonstration of interspecies collaboration. His approach resonates with that of philosophers and ecologists, who argue that humans’ moral authority is founded on a contract of mutuality with the entire biosphere, and his work invites us to consider larger questions about animal intelligence.
