A Hen lays an Egg after light-sensitive cells behind her eyes message her ovary to release an ovum into the egg yolk. Fertilized by sperm, coated by albumen, encased in shell as the egg travels through the oviduct. This  creative process encompasses twenty-four hours; as the rotation of Earth on its axis.  

Hope Sandrow, spacetime June 2007 

Investigating the prevailing spirit of the new Parrish Museum site, Sandrow’s research revealed use as a poultry farm last century; lands where Native Americans roamed freely before colonialists (1640) founded the first English Colony in New York State.

(March 28, 2006) Sandrow’s path crossed with a big white bird (l, a Padovana cockeral later named Shinnecock for where they met): his feathered crest reminded her of Shinnecock regalia (pictured, r) Eastern Woodland headdress. Her Chance Encounter (Surrealist doctrine of objective chance) on hills where Native Americans roamed freely (1859) before Southampton Town laid claim to 4,600 acres of Shinnecock Nation ancestral lands. A federal judge dismissed the Nation’s suit to regain their  native lands (December 2006) “holding that the tribe waited too long to bring the case” (lost appeal,  2016).

A landscape sketched, memorialized in paintings by plein air artist William Merritt Chase (The Shinnecock Years, Parrish Art Museum) when he lived with his family (and a flock of chickens) nearby.

The seventeen portraits of Shinnecock and his flock commissioned (2009) by Agnes Gund (two pictured, l) were produced in the historic photographic medium of Albumen prints (1860-1899). As a conceptual context reflecting the importance of chickens to human and technological development.

view more in this series of portraits....

The Sky is Falling

(above) September 29 5:09pm Agenor; September 30; 3:53pm Shinnecock with Susanna

The Sky is Falling Open Air Studio Shinnecock Hills spacetime 

2009   Albumen Prints 20” x 16”  Unique Prints exhibited

collection Parrish Art Museum