There is a growing absence of empathy in New York City - subtle, yet deeply felt. Among the many recipients of misplaced disdain are pigeons, creatures often subjected to excessive and unnecessary hate. This collection reimagines pigeons in human form, using them as a mirror to reflect the discomfort people feel toward aspects of themselves. Common perceptions of pigeons - dirty, aimless, intrusive - closely parallel how many New Yorkers view one another: as obstacles rather than individuals.

On a more personal level, this collection expresses a lifelong feeling of being unwelcome, as though I’ve always been in someone’s way - much like pigeons scattered by children running through sidewalks while adults look on in approval. There is an unspoken expectation for pigeons to move, to yield, to disappear.

At its core, this work questions why we assume that what inconveniences us must be intentional. It challenges the reflex to externalize frustration onto others and calls for a reexamination of the quiet cruelties we’ve normalized. Kindness begins with resisting the urge to dehumanize - or, in this case, devalue - what we fail to understand.