DEBORAH CARRUTHERS
  • Home
    • Artist Statement
    • Bio
  • Performances
    • Ecstacies of Influence - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre -Montréal - December 2018
    • slippages - The UBC Symphony Orchestra - Chan Centre - Vancouver - October 2018 >
      • slippages - Press
      • slippages - Instructions for play and score
      • slippages in the Studio: About my process >
        • slippages Athabasca -Photographs
        • slippages Immense Immensities
        • slippages Notebook
        • slippages Athabasca Painting
      • slippages - Performance Videos
  • Exhibitions / Residencies
    • Recent Exhibitions ... Now You See Me... >
      • The Aura of the Already Said - Zygote Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio - 2019 >
        • The Aura of the Already Said: Exhibition - Press
      • Souvenir / Souvenir - Montréal, Québec 2017 >
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Press
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Essay ​Culte du Souvenir
        • Souvenir / Souvenir: About the Exhibition ...
        • About ​Safe Passage
        • About the Paintings ...
        • About the Photographs ...
        • About the Vitrines ...
        • Souvenir / Souvenir : Invitation card
      • Souvenir sacré - Opasatika - Hearst, Ontario 2016
    • Residencies ... Home Away from Home >
      • Ecstasies of Influence : matralab, Concordia University - Montréal 2018 >
        • Ecstacies of Influence - December 16, 2018 - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre - Montréal
      • The Past Sealed Away - Peter Wall Institute Artist in Residence - Vancouver, BC 2017 - 2018 >
        • The Past Sealed Away... Article
      • What's in a Song ? - Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2017
      • In The Hole - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan 2017
      • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2016 >
        • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Installation
  • Graphic Scores
    • slippages - 2018 >
      • slippages - Press
      • slippages - Instructions for play and score
      • slippages in the Studio: About my process >
        • slippages Athabasca -Photographs
        • slippages Immense Immensities
        • slippages Notebook
        • slippages Athabasca Painting
      • slippages - Performance Videos
    • Between the Song and the Silence: Berlin 2017 - 2020 >
      • Between the Song and the Silence: Graphic Score- Banff Iteration
      • My Muses
      • What's in a Name?
      • Taking Flight ... The Process
      • Swan Song... A summary of my process for my MFA research
  • Portfolio
    • The Past Sealed Away ...
    • The Past Sealed Away... Prints
    • Immense Immensities
    • In The Hole
    • Mortsaf for My Father
    • Souvenir sacré
    • Fleurs sacrées
    • Mortsaf
    • Genetics for Cowboys
    • Beautiful Ghosts
    • Niagara Tondos
    • Twinned
  • C V
  • Contact

A Ubiquity of Sparrows: Eats like a Bird...

I have been thinking about the impact of bird species fluctuations on the environment, and the effect of removing these opportunistic species. Which led me to Mao Zedong’s 1958 Four Pests campaign, and the deliberate eradication of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow. This has long been considered a contributing factor in one of the world’s worst self-inflicted environmental disasters, leading to China’s famine [1958-1961]. 

As part of Mao’s Great Leap Forward agricultural campaign, which re-examined farming practices, Mao concluded that there were four pests that required extermination: the fly, mosquito, sparrow and rat. The sparrow’s inclusion on this list was a consequence of calculations which determined that as each sparrow consumed approximately 4.5 Kg of seed per year, every million sparrows exterminated would result in saving enough grain to feed 60,000 people.

For three days, starting December 13, 1958, the entire populace was exhorted to participate in the slaughter of sparrows. Drumming, shouting, beating the trees with long poles, erecting innumerable scarecrows and flags, using slingshots and rifles, birds began to fall out of the sky by the thousands as they succumbed to exhaustion. Millions of sparrows died, with truckloads of dead sparrows being driven around the cities and towns to demonstrate the efficacy of the campaign. Unfortunately, by the time that China’s Academy of Sciences produced a report on how many insects (such as locusts, a favorite food of the sparrow) the birds ate compared to how much seed, which demonstrated that the killing of sparrows was highly counter-productive, it was too late. The ensuing proliferation of locusts and other insects caused massive crop failures, and led to the deaths of between 30 and 45 million people.

I am immersed in reading about the Great Leap Forward at the moment, trying to grasp how something so catastrophic could happen.
Picture
Drumming, shouting, beating the trees with long poles, erecting innumerable scarecrows and flags, using slingshots and rifles, birds began to fall out of the sky by the thousands as they succumbed to exhaustion. 
​ We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Nous remercions le Conseil des Arts du Canada de son soutien.
Picture
  • Home
    • Artist Statement
    • Bio
  • Performances
    • Ecstacies of Influence - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre -Montréal - December 2018
    • slippages - The UBC Symphony Orchestra - Chan Centre - Vancouver - October 2018 >
      • slippages - Press
      • slippages - Instructions for play and score
      • slippages in the Studio: About my process >
        • slippages Athabasca -Photographs
        • slippages Immense Immensities
        • slippages Notebook
        • slippages Athabasca Painting
      • slippages - Performance Videos
  • Exhibitions / Residencies
    • Recent Exhibitions ... Now You See Me... >
      • The Aura of the Already Said - Zygote Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio - 2019 >
        • The Aura of the Already Said: Exhibition - Press
      • Souvenir / Souvenir - Montréal, Québec 2017 >
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Press
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Essay ​Culte du Souvenir
        • Souvenir / Souvenir: About the Exhibition ...
        • About ​Safe Passage
        • About the Paintings ...
        • About the Photographs ...
        • About the Vitrines ...
        • Souvenir / Souvenir : Invitation card
      • Souvenir sacré - Opasatika - Hearst, Ontario 2016
    • Residencies ... Home Away from Home >
      • Ecstasies of Influence : matralab, Concordia University - Montréal 2018 >
        • Ecstacies of Influence - December 16, 2018 - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre - Montréal
      • The Past Sealed Away - Peter Wall Institute Artist in Residence - Vancouver, BC 2017 - 2018 >
        • The Past Sealed Away... Article
      • What's in a Song ? - Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2017
      • In The Hole - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan 2017
      • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2016 >
        • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Installation
  • Graphic Scores
    • slippages - 2018 >
      • slippages - Press
      • slippages - Instructions for play and score
      • slippages in the Studio: About my process >
        • slippages Athabasca -Photographs
        • slippages Immense Immensities
        • slippages Notebook
        • slippages Athabasca Painting
      • slippages - Performance Videos
    • Between the Song and the Silence: Berlin 2017 - 2020 >
      • Between the Song and the Silence: Graphic Score- Banff Iteration
      • My Muses
      • What's in a Name?
      • Taking Flight ... The Process
      • Swan Song... A summary of my process for my MFA research
  • Portfolio
    • The Past Sealed Away ...
    • The Past Sealed Away... Prints
    • Immense Immensities
    • In The Hole
    • Mortsaf for My Father
    • Souvenir sacré
    • Fleurs sacrées
    • Mortsaf
    • Genetics for Cowboys
    • Beautiful Ghosts
    • Niagara Tondos
    • Twinned
  • C V
  • Contact