Hawk & Dove

In 2010 a Cooper’s Hawk took up residency in the Main Reading Room at the Library of Congress, and for a few days the airwaves were full of witty references to the hawks and doves of Congress, and the idea of a bird’s eye view of Washington DC. Isabella was mid-way through a six-month Research Fellowship within the John W. Kluge Center, researching the history of ballooning through the Tissandier collection as part of her doctoral research into the use of military visioning technologies in fine art practice. This collision of real life and research, typical of research through creative practice, led Isabella to propose a highly-charged art intervention within federal power structures in the city using two nine-foot remote controlled zeppelins.

Hawk & Dove was originally installed as silver vinyl prints and a projection at the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library in Washington DC for 5x5, the city's inaugural public art festival as part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. It was filmed at the Library of Congress and the MLK Memorial Library in early 2012, and was funded by Arts Council England, the Arts & Humanities Research Council, and the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts & Humanities. Hawk & Dove was produced by Grit & Pearl.