Sarandipity 2007 -

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Sarandipity 2007 -

84.2°. Sun. Scattered Clouds. Five chicks - the first for flock founder White Rooster Shinnecock, wives Gold Lace Cleo and Chloe (all aged 1 year more or less) - have emerged from eggs set on by Gold Lace Hen Cleo. One Chick (to be Gold Lace Hen Sarandipity) remains inside the shell. Chirping; struggling to break it open. We’re nervous to do the right thing; observing not interfering.

The first born chick (to be Silver Lace Rooster Galileo, flock leader following Shinnecock) repeatedly defies his Mother’s orders, leading the others to help this chick cut away the shell. Again and again they’re ordered not to ... returning to sit with Mother Cleo to watch.

We watch via surveillance camera. As do friends and colleagues online whom I’d written:

“Having been told by Experts that my Padua hens Cleo and Chloe were of a non setting breed: I was surprised to see Cleo doing just that. Approaching the 21 days chicks were expected to emerge from the egg’s shell, I’m creating this public art work Happening Live Now, utilizing a surveillance camera to transmit live images of Cleo setting on her eggs, for you, experts and others to observe along with me what happens next:

Join us (via surveillance camera) LIVE in Cleo's Southampton (New York) nest as she sets on 11 eggs at:
hopesandrow.viewnetcam.com:5000
Although experts and breeders cite numerous documentation that Paduans or Polish are non setting chickens, nonetheless, on May 28, Cleo followed her natural instinct to set on 11 eggs she and Cleo laid. Just as the literature describes, she sets herself in a trance while incubating her eggs for 21 days (what you will be watching on the surveillance camera). Play the part of "observer" in an artwork that aims to alter misconceptions of chickens by showing how those chickens that live"freely" can be freed of the bonds of commercial farm production that are a major contributor to global warming and fuel crisis.
Happening in real time, watch eggs mature, chicks hatch (approximately June 18th, 2007) and go off into the world with their "Mother" hen Cleo.”
We receive messages and phone calls telling us to help the Chick out. By afternoon we sense the Chick cannot survive much longer without water. Ulf’s steady hand and emotion accomplishes the feat of peeling away shell and membrane: the chick is fed honey water by dropper; placed in my shirt warmed by my heart. Soon well enough to be carried outside to rejoin her siblings: Mother Hen Cleo stomps her foot over the chick. The chick leaps in the air as she removes it; with her wing sweeps it under her to join the other five chicks for warmth once its clear this chick is healthy. The length of visible light 16h 14m. The length of day 15h 6m.

Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 3:30 PM

June 17 commencing 3:30 PM, Peeling an egg’s shell to free a chick, one of six from Shinnecock, Chloe and Cleo’s first brood

Still photograph Size variable

2007 from the study spacetime