Jung Hsu

In the 18th century, coal miners used canaries as living sensors for toxic air, their deaths serving as tangible warnings. Spending long hours alongside these birds, miners felt guilt and eventually invented small oxygen chambers to save them from poisoning or suffocation. The canary thus shifted from an exploited object to a symbol of sympathy.

In this project, the first piece of the Save a Dying Bird exhibition, the artist presents a spatial sound performance within a tall, deep staircase. A wax canary melts under heat lamps, revealing its skeleton and embodying the projection of empathy and guilt.