Scarlet Macaw Crayons

Diana Thater American
1995
Not on view
Sometimes referred to as a neo-structuralist, Thater is the heir of structuralist filmmaking and early experimental video. Her preferred medium is video, whose component parts (optical, technical, and structural) she self-consciously parses, calling attention to the work’s conditions of production and installation. As with Scarlet Macaw Crayons, professional animals—animals trained and kept by humans—feature prominently in Thater’s videos. In many ways, such animals constitute her subjects as much as they do her media. Thater highlights the role that animals play, often anthropomorphically, as screens for human expectations, fantasies, and assumptions, but simultaneously denaturalizes these paragons of the (ostensibly) natural world. In Scarlet Macaw Crayons, which is loosely based on Eadweard Muybridge’s studies on the locomotion of birds, a scarlet macaw called Crayons is recorded by three cameras from three different angles as it tries to balance on a perch held by a trainer, who shifts it to and fro, causing the bird to extend and retract its wings. After filming, Thater extracted all but one color (either red, blue, or green) from each of the three videos, later combining them to make a composite image. This process has the effect of splitting the bird, who appears whole but multiple, and reducing its plumage (which reflects the color spectrum of video) to shades of black, white, and gray. The projected image registers at the center but blurs at the edges, allowing all the colors of the video spectrum to appear, albeit separately. Scarlet Macaw Crayons is closely related to and often exhibited with Moluccan Cockatoo Molly #1, also in The Met's collection. In both cases, all the media and video equipment is placed on the floor, where it is visible to viewers, and if the galleries include windows, they are covered with red, green, and blue gels.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Scarlet Macaw Crayons
  • Artist: Diana Thater (American, born Los Angeles 1962)
  • Date: 1995
  • Medium: One video projector, one media player
  • Edition: 2/2
  • Dimensions: Dimensions variable
  • Classification: Variable Media
  • Credit Line: Gift of Clayton Press and Gregory Linn, 2022
  • Object Number: 2022.30.1
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.