Mickus Songbird House

The Mickus family has been extending their traditional Cape Cod home with contemporary additions that juxtapose and punctuate architectural styles. Mickus Songbird House, a 3D printed model of the newly renovated home, adds yet another element in the form of a readymade cedar birdhouse. The birdhouse is designed for the specific nesting preferences of wrens, a common North American songbird, and is spliced into the model of the Mickus home. Mickus Songbird House is situated on an elevated platform with a steel pole to discourage predators. The piece is located on the Mickus’s lawn near bushes to attract wrens.

 

 

Susan Giles is an artist working in sculpture and video. She has a MFA from Northwestern University and a MA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Giles’ work has shown in Chicago at THE MISSION Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Renaissance Society, as well as Mixed Greens in New York and Galeria Valle Orti in Valencia, Spain, among others. She has received several grants, including an Individual Artist Project Grant from DCASE in 2015, awards from the Illinois Arts Council in 2014 and 2009, a 2005 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award and a 1998 Fulbright Grant to Indonesia to conduct research on the intersection of tourism and culture in Bali. Susan has recently accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Contemporary Practices at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.