carrots & tractors (parrots & raptors)

carrots & tractors is the companion book to parrots & raptors, a site-specific installation by Keith Daly, on view at Pro Arts in Oakland, CA, September 8 to 29, 2017. The book unveils the inception of parrots & raptors, and explores the project's parallel and digressive storylines.

In parrots & raptors, Daly shuffled the letters in the gallery's name (p, r, o, a, r, t, s) and found only two words using all the letters: "parrots" and "raptors". If these opposite types of birds were metaphors for the art world, parrots might represent colorful, spontaneous experimentation and play, while raptors would stand for a competitive, predatory arts ecosystem. Intrigued by this dichotomy, Daly used the two anagrams to redesign Pro Arts' logo. He made limited edition buttons and mugs, collected bird-related sculptures, images and videos, and further explored the tension between opposites in a large mural painting.