You're reading: An artist populates Kyiv with sculpted birds that look real

As sparrows continue disappearing in cities worldwide, an artist is repopulating Kyiv with birds of his own creation.

His sculpted creatures are perched on Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s monument that stands just off Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, on the sign over Pinchuk Ark Center by Bessarabsky Market and in many other places favored by Kyivans.

Almost indistinguishable from live birds at first, Oleksandr Lidagovskiy’s creatures are a subtle form of street art that was conceived almost by accident.

During his trip to Belgium in 2000, he spotted a bird sitting at the edge of a roof, and he could not decide whether the creature was real or fake.

“I trusted my professional eye and decided that it was not [real], but when I went back it was no longer there,” he laughs.

He recreated this visual illusion in Kyiv many times over, and has fooled passersby and feathered animals alike.He first sculpted sparrows, then moved on to crows and pigeons, and to date he has placed more than 300 of them around the city.

Real birds are even confused by the lifelike arty fellows.

Oleksandr Lidagovskiy
(Ganna Bernyk)

Ornithologist Yaroslav Debelyi is not surprised. He says birds use visual clues to be able to tell the difference, but if the artwork is good, it can be mistaken for a rival.

“Birds start perceiving it as a competitor for their space,” he explains.

Most of Lidagovskiy’s creatures sit discreetly on houses, monuments, art galleries and in parks.

The geography of their distribution reflected the artist’s own preferences in Kyiv. “First of all, I put my birds where I usually go: galleries, art places, the wine market,” the artist says. Most of them went up last summer.

Ksenia Malykh, a fine art expert at M-17 art center, says the project is a great combination of street art and sculpting. “This idea of inconspicuous art also separates the people who are interested in what is going around them, and people who are totally indifferent,” Malykh says.

This idea of inconspicuous art also separates the people who are interested in what is going around them, and people who are totally indifferent.

– Ksenis Malykh, a fine expert at M17 art center

Unfortunately, many of the original birds did not survive the harsh winter. Birds are also frequently stolen from their new homes. They are made of foam, are very light and are mounted only with a piece of scotch tape.

His little feathery creatures have caused quite a stir, and the artist occasionally gets phones calls to replace a bird that has been stolen. That was the case with the Russian Art Museum, known as the Chocolate House.

“They didn’t want my birds at first, but then they called to ask for more,” Lidagovskiy says. Now the tours at the Chocolate House start with the little blue tits on their facade.

The artist says decorating the city with birds is now like a game, and is pretty addictive. “I believe this project also teaches us to feel the space and to finally get rid of the Soviet monumental art. Today art should be a part of life and birds fit this concept perfectly,” he says.

Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]