Birds of the West Indies by Taryn Simon - Comprehensive Guide to Caribbean Avian Species | Perfect for Bird Watching, Nature Photography & Tropical Travel

Product Description

Taryn SimonIan FlemingJames Bond / 007





BIRDS OF THE WEST INDIESJames Bond1936

2013 Carnegie InternationalCarnegie Museum of Art20131020143

In 1936, an ornithologist called James Bond released the definitive taxonomy of birds found in the Caribbean, titled "Birds of the West Indies". Ian Fleming, an active bird watcher living in Jamaica, subsequently appropriated the name for his novel’s lead character. He found it to be perfectly “ordinary”, “brief”, “Anglo-Saxon” and “masculine”. This co-opting of names was the first replacement in a series of substitutions that would become central to the construction of the Bond narrative. In a meticulous and comprehensive dissection of the Bond films, artist Taryn Simon (*1975 in New York) inventoried women, weapons and vehicles in Bond. The contents of these categories function as essential accessories to the narrative’s myth of the seductive, powerful, and invincible western male.

In "Birds of the West Indies", Simon presents a visual database of interchangeable variables used in the production of fantasy, through which she examines the economic and emotional value generated by their repetition.