Chickens are frequent 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. Their temperaments, figures, and behaviour emerging from the uniques places 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.
In the codex, multiple chickens are treated as valued guests rather than agricultural units — living between projects.
Select a chicken to explore their histories.
2025/06/20 Why the Chickens?
CATALOGUE : in progress*
LOCATION : Wadandi Country, Cowaramup, Western Australia
FROM: Alice
this project is dedicated to Dad