In 1993, the founder of Cracking Art, whose anonymous members are scattered around Europe, realized that plastic had come to overshadow the natural world around him.

The name Cracking Art is based on the English verb “to crack”, or the state of being “split, broken, cracked, or crashed”. Catalytic cracking is also the term for the chemical reaction that occurs when converting crude oil into plastic, the moment when the natural becomes artificial.

Cracking Art describes the material of their works as “regenerable plastic,” since all of the works they create are from re-purposed plastic, and each animal is subsequently regenerated into another iteration of their art.

The name suggests the relationship between humans and nature has been disrupted, while recognizing the irony of making plastic from a precious liquid that used to be living creatures.

Their first use of the swallow was in 1994 and represents to the artists the idea of “…journey and freedom and, building nests on residential roofs, it suggests the idea of cohabitation with humans….”

REbirth feels particularly meaningful to us in 2021. With global social, economic and climate upheaval, the idea of rebirth—or rethinking, recalibrating, redirecting—our relationship to one another and to nature have not been this urgent since the 1970s.

Black Box Fund is proud to announce the donation of two giant swallows from REbirth to the Historic Third Ward Association, Inc. The fuchsia birds are a glowing presence at the northwest corner of Water Street and Saint Paul, the newest addition to the cultural landscape of our region.