Chris Bleicher is a German Artist who is regaled for her vibrant, innovative creations. The founder of the “peep art” movement, one of her most recent projects is “BirdCam, though” and it is sure to especially delight bird watchers and animal lovers alike.
Birds
An avid animal lover, Chris currently lives in Munich, Germany, which is close to the Isar River and the area also has many parks, trees, and wildlife. Several years ago, a red squirrel looked at through her apartment window. She was delighted by the encounter and started placing food on her window sill to attract the squirrel.
Subsequently, several squirrels and many Birds started frequenting Chris’ window in search of food and their presence ignited her artistic muse. After witnessing the small community of birds and tiny mammals that gathered on her window sill, Chris set up a LiveCam—termed a “peepart peep-BirdCam”—to capture their comings and goings and placed the feed online so people from all over the world could enjoy the scene. Blackbirds, blu tit, great tit, chaffinch, nuthatch, a brown/grey pigeon couple, squirrels and more all came to the window much to the delight of Chris. “I was so happy to see all the birds by my window and I thought it would be great to share this pleasure with other bird lovers worldwide,” Chris explained.
“Therefore, I founded a new group on Facebook to continue my AVANTGARDE peepart LiveCam project of the year from 2000 with the concept called ‘Communication Worldwide In Real-Time’ and set up the BirdCam which can be viewed any time by visiting my website.” Interestingly, the peepart peep-BirdCam is installed face-to-face with the birds which enhances the feeling of immersion in their community.
Video
Chris has a lot of experience working with video and she has won many awards and accolades for her artwork, especially her installations. Yet this project is special since it is so animal-centric; peepart peep-BirdCam is a brand-new endeavor, but Chris is hopeful that it will attract many viewers in the coming weeks and months.
“The infrared camera streams twenty-four hours but at night the birds and squirrels are sleeping,” she explained. Hence, the best time to tune in is when it is early morning until sunset in Germany. “The birds interest is so big that I have to feed them every day especially when the ground is frozen,” Chris declared. “Sometimes I have to put food out twice! Normally I clean the window board every night and then I put as much food as possible but sometimes it's not enough and I have to put extra food in the afternoon.” To date, the rarest species she has seen include a woodpecker (Dendrocopos) and a Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius).
Artwork
Chris has worked with animals before. She cast a parrot named “Don Pedro” as the star of a series of photographs that infused her signature “neon art” style.
“That photo shoot lasted for four hours and I’ve never seen photos like them before,” Chris stated and noted that Don Pedro was a lot of fun to collaborate with. Additionally, she also created an installation artwork titled “Chicken in the Cockpit” which centered on the theme "preserving nature in combination with technique" and featured a chicken hypnosis performance which garnered a lot of media attention. She also worked with her cat, Carmen, when she worked on yet another photography project pertaining to funeral-themes. In fact, Chris is the first artist in Germany who started painting pet urns and coffins that aim to celebrate the lives of beloved animals.
Projects
Chris firmly believes that there are many things that people can do to coexist more peacefully with animals such as avoiding waste by either recycling or reusing items, strongly considering adopting a vegan lifestyle, and advocating for the preservation of nature. As 2017 progresses, Chris will continue on with the peepart peep-BirdCam project as well as display new works at a variety of venues including the Art Expo in New York City in April.
