Chickens recur throughout the Artefact Codex.
Partly as a practical solution (there are only so many projects that begin with Q or V).
Partly because chickens insist on being present.
After working across several farms, I became attentive to the diversity of chicken breeds — each shaped by specific climates, geographies, and histories. Temperament, form, and behaviour emerge from each place they inhabit.
Contemporary farming increasingly privileges a narrow selection of high-yield breeds. Many older and regionally adapted varieties are disappearing. These birds may not optimise meat or egg production, but they carry other forms of value: ecological specificity, resilience, and character.
Here, chickens are treated as situated beings rather than agricultural units — living archives of adaptation.
Select a chicken to encounter them individually.
2025/06/20 Why the Chickens?
CATALOGUE : in progress*
LOCATION : Wadandi Country, Cowaramup, Western Australia
FROM: Alice
this project is dedicated to Dad