{"id":22354,"date":"2014-09-04T13:14:45","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T18:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/?p=22354"},"modified":"2014-09-06T09:49:39","modified_gmt":"2014-09-06T14:49:39","slug":"pats-pigeon-club-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/the-bomb\/2014\/09\/04\/pats-pigeon-club-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"~PAT’S PIGEON CLUB . . at MUDDGUTS"},"content":{"rendered":"

PATRICK McCARTHY – PAT’S PIGEON CLUB
\nROOF SUPPLYS, FANZINES, BIRD TALK
\nAUG 11 – AUG 22, 2014
\nMUDDGUTS<\/a> – 41 MONTROSE, BROOKLYN, NY<\/p>\n

PAT’S PIGEON CLUB . . ROOF ‘SUPPLYS’, FANZINES, BIRD TALK . . and ART.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nif an underground, hardcore indie art gallery could be like . . a country store, MUDDGUTS did certainly give that impression, this hot summer day.
\nsince this was my first foray over here – I had no idea . . just what lay beyond the door.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPATRICK McCARTHY, aka . . PAT the BUSHWICK PIGEONEER.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nthe first thing that struck me was how casually – the small front alcove had been transformed into a lively kind of office . . for the artist. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI had to ask because never having been there before I wasn’t sure, maybe it was the gallery front office ?
\nbut no, PATRICK told me it was part of his exhibit and he had made everything, and set up all the photos on the wall, etc. etc. and yes, he had made the boom box, and turns out, maybe more to the point – the small white clay bell – to the right, next to the handle. <\/p>\n

PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘PIGEON SHOP STEREO’, mixed media “we out here”. ($!,000)
\nit lit up, it had a great vintage cowboy vignette, like it came off a retro lunchbox or thermos – and it said: “we out here”. (!!)
\nawesome.
\nI bet it plays, too.
\nit was too pricey for my pocket. but boy, did I covet it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPATRICK McCARTHY, ‘BAMBOO CAGE’, mixed media. ($5,000)<\/p>\n

the Muddguts gallery had been turned into a gallery\/store\/club. the space is on the small side, all the better to know ya, give me artist-indie vs big box galleries any day.<\/p>\n

you know a typical New York City bodega kind of storefront, and it seemed clear the minute you entered, some kind of magic, and some kind of pigeon grocery store – were married, and happily . . at foot.
\nin a sentence: a serious pigeon fan club offering solid pigeon breeding info, and some pretty zen-like handmade art – along with sacks of bird feed & industry zines.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nthis beautiful oriental wind chime of a coop – being one of the hand-made items on offer.
\nsuper loved the faux jade, but still . . luminous, green roof !!
\nso thin and papery.
\nlooks to be configured – from an oriental parasol.
\nnow that’s light-handed sensual fabrication, if I ever did see one. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nit was also quite functional – not just a fantasy facsimile, witness the resident guest of honor . . .
\nwhat a beautiful pigeon, more like a dancer – not your average dirty scruffy street thug.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nand so the story begins . .
\nturns out Patrick fancies and raises a breed called . . Polish Roller, nice name. pretty bird.
\nthis is a Polish Roller male.
\nPatrick started out with 4, and now he has almost a hundred, or maybe it’s . . a hundred and counting !!<\/p>\n

not knowing much about Pigeons, except for DUKE RILEY’S last (Nov 2014) show of a tough ocean-flying Cuban cigar-smuggling camera bearing pigeon crew . . I had to ask, did he know the Duke ?
\nyep.
\nturns out the Duke had just recently sold that huge showboat of an almost candy-colored wooden fable gypsy-like caravan coop he had made & exhibited in that show, “See You at the Finish Line” – it was called.
\nit just went to some big, or smart, probably both (!!) collector in Europe, for a dollar figure in the 6 digits. surprise, surprise, not.
\nthat was 3 months ago, and since their home was now gone, sold as an art piece !! talk about artist-born gentrification !!
\nand turns out, Duke has been boarding the now homeless 30 or so member-strong sea-worthy feathered crew at . . BABYLON COOPS, with PATRICK !!
\nguess it’s a small world, in pigeon circles !!
\nI wonder what the rates are for pigeon coop rental ?
\nwhat’s worse I wonder if Duke even cares for them anymore, now that their 5 mins of fame – is up.
\nsurprise surprise, somehow, I doubt it.
\njust a gut feeling. but somehow somewhere, I’m thinking gentle Patrick has 30 more tough ole birds to feed, and keep clean. and they are not even his – style !! <\/p>\n

because Pat also brought to my attention that the sturdy birds that Duke had set to ocean crossing flight, smuggling cigars back to Miami from Cuba . . . in mini mini hand-sewn backpacks & hooked up with 24\/7 mini cams . . were a really sturdy breed & looked like boxers. while Patrick’s in-house team was more graceful, more like dandies. I liked that contrast.<\/p>\n

it was kind of like the contrast between Duke and Pat. one a showboat muscle, the other a graceful acrobat. all good esp in the yin-yang polarities, as far as I’m concerned. anyways, it’s not about one or the other – it’s all good, meaning beauty . . lies in the shades of gray.
\nbetween the ranges of expression = art. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\ntop:
\nPATRICK McCARTHY, ‘BABYLON NEON’, wire, steel, flamingo lights. ($1,400)
\nlower:
\nPATRICK McCARTHY, ‘Photoboard’, each – digital c-prints on cork board, the one on the left is framed. ($1,000 ea.) <\/p>\n

luckily there were 2 photo collages on the opposite wall, providing a clear visual map to further my pigeon know-how: re: etiquette, the care of, and breeding.<\/p>\n

and you know what, with the way this summer has been going, it was<\/strong> nice to fall into a world of pigeon devotion, if only for day. like a swim in a lake, without a care in the world, except for the cost of pigeon feed.
\nPAT’S PIGEON CLUB – had very gentle vibes.
\nthe other side of the coin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nso turns out Brooklyn had quite the pigeon breeding culture, which still, though barely, lives on.
\nit’s fate lies in the hands of the next generation, because apparently 9 or 10 years old is the age when you typically get the bug, and you know . . first 4, then a hundred. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\na pigeon landscaped roof-top garden, probably Patrick’s . . <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nBabylon Pigeon Coop seems to be quite rustic, and yet somehow . . romantic.
\nvisionary. poetic.
\ntoo on the down-low – to be termed artisanal, and I’m thinking . . that’s a good thing !!
\nbut wait . . til you see the pottery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\ninside the Babylon coops – the ‘high-rise’ ceramic perches – fashioned by Patrick himself.
\nnow that’s what I call . . artisanal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\na vertical row of them was for sale in the gallery.
\nPATRICK McCARTHY, ‘V PERCH HIGH RISE’, porcelain, hardware, wood plank. ($1,500)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nso zen.
\nesp for porcelain. esp if you know the history of MEISSEN porcelain ?!!
\napparently this almost all-white zen glaze . . is very colorful to the pigeons, because they have ‘pentachromatic’ sight and so they know which one is theirs.
\nessentially if humans can see 1 million hues, pigeons can see 10 billion.
\nrange of vision and perception of minute color codes – is apparently essential to safe flight.<\/p>\n

the ‘v’ shape helps keep the fellow pigeon under your perch, free of your pigeon poop. it acts like a roof and perch all rolled up into one – which lets the poop roll down to the floor, the better for the coop keeper to scoop it up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPATRICK also fashions clay breeding or nesting bowls for his brood – the birds bring in their own organic adornments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPATRICK McCARTY, ‘NEST BOWLS’, issue 3. porcelain. ($1,200 for the set)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nwhen Babylon Coops runs out of proper nest bowls, Patrick gives them an ole sneaker . . seems to do the trick.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPATRICK McCARTHY, ‘BRONZED NEST SHOE’, converse sneaker, feathers, hay, epoxy resin, paint. ($2,000)<\/p>\n

MORE PIX – TO FOLLOW.<\/p>\n

PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH. SUNDAY AUG 17, 2014 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PATRICK McCARTHY – PAT’S PIGEON CLUB ROOF SUPPLYS, FANZINES, BIRD TALK AUG 11 – AUG 22, 2014 MUDDGUTS – 41 MONTROSE, BROOKLYN, NY PAT’S PIGEON CLUB . . ROOF ‘SUPPLYS’, FANZINES, BIRD TALK . . and ART. if an underground, hardcore indie art gallery could be like . . a country store, MUDDGUTS did certainly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22354"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22406,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22354\/revisions\/22406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}