Jung Hsu

Bird exhibitions are major events in the pet bird industry, attracting thousands of enthusiasts. At international shows, more than 20,000 canaries are displayed in standardized exhibition cages. Each category of canary has been shaped through countless generations of selective breeding and human intervention, producing standardized traits of color, body size, and even skeletal or feather variations. Judges select champions based on these artificial standards, and the winning birds can be sold for hundreds of times their usual price. In this installation, 20 European standard exhibition cages for canaries symbolize humanity’s desire to capture and reshape nature for hobby, entertainment, and profit.