NESTCRAFT
Nestcraft combines Mara Silver’s clay swallow nests with photography, video, and ornithological artefacts curated by Marcel O’Gorman and Jennifer Clary-Lemon.
NEW: Join us May 16 for an in-person talk with Mara Silver.
May 13 – June 12, 2025
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery
Waterloo, Ontario
When humans dispersed across the landscape they unintentionally benefitted Barn Swallows and Cliff Swallows by creating structures such as barns, outbuildings, and bridges, which both species use as nesting sites. In spite of this, today both species are declining across significant portions of their ranges, due to habitat loss but also due to other anthropogenic factors, including climate change, pesticide use, and agricultural intensification.
Mara Silver, with a background in both ceramics and ornithology, has found that in spite of threats to the swallows, colonies can rebound when habitat is improved at the nesting-site level. One tool she uses for habitat restoration is clay nests formed to mimic natural nests. Each nest is handcrafted so no two are alike, and they are “unfinished.” The swallows can choose the one they prefer and finish it to their liking, adding pellets of mud beakful by beakful. By observing the swallows and their artful nests, Mara sought to “collaborate” with the swallows, and thus return to the helpful role humans once played in their nesting.
By observing the swallows and their artful nests, Mara sought to “collaborate” with the swallows and thus return to the helpful role humans once played in their nesting.
Who is behind the Nestcraft?
Mara Silver, Sculptor
Mara Silver has been working on swallow conservation projects for the past 30 years. The primary focus of her work has been on developing relatively simple management techniques to enhance breeding success of Cliff and Barn Swallows at nesting sites. Mara holds an undergraduate degree in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic and an M.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she researched characteristics of river banks used by nesting Bank Swallows and Belted Kingfishers. To learn more about her work see: www.swallowconservation.org.
Jennifer Clary-Lemon, Curator
Jennifer Clary-Lemon is a Professor of English at the University of Waterloo. She studies how humans and nonhumans might best communicate in a time of increased species loss. With Marcel O’Gorman and through the Critical Media Lab, she has launched the creative installations Hirondelusia: A Creative Turn toward Species at Risk and Liminowlity (with alejandro acierto). She is the author of Planting the Anthropocene and Nestwork: New Material Rhetorics for Precarious Species, which features a number of Ontario bird species at risk.
Marcel O’Gorman, Curator
Marcel O’Gorman is Founding Director of Critical Media Lab and a University Research Chair at the University of Waterloo. His publications and collaborative design projects explore the impacts of technology on society and on the more-than-human world. His most recent books are Necromedia: On Death and Technology and Making Media Theory: Critical Thinking with Technology. “Nestcraft” is the result of his ongoing collaboration with Jennifer Clary-Lemon on co-designing with birds.
Join us for an in-person talk with Mara Silver
Special thanks
Chris Rogers from Critical Media Lab for Exhibition Assistance and Web Development.
Oliver Haddrath and Mark Peck from Royal Ontario Museum for Study Skin Assistance.
Evan Gallon from Timeless Materials for Timber Preparation.
David McIntyre and Amy Toensing for photography.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for Funding.
