Flying high with his Urban Habitat project for IDEAS CITY and the New Museum, Street Artist XAM has been creating site specific eco-friendly aviary homes in lower Manhattan on the street out where birds are most likely to see them, and use them for food and shelter. If you have the opportunity to speak with this trained architect and serious student of art, graffiti, design, materials, urban planning, and bird life, you cannot help but be drawn in by the enthusiastically detailed descriptions regarding  methodology and processes that he follows to complete projects like this. BSA has documented his work extensively since he began on the street with his dwellings and it is a pleasure to see an wider audience now having the opportunity to interact with his pieces and to see his aesthetic loosening up to be a bit more playful as well.

A XAM bird dwelling is well placed next to a painted bird from Street Artist ROA from a couple of years earlier. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Along with offering selected pieces through the New Museum store, XAM now has his first solo show, “Migration-NYC”, at Dorian Grey gallery in the East Village. On opening day last Saturday during the IDEAS CITYs Streetfest, visitors were also invited to scan a QR code and follow a mapped path of his installations, complete with photos and descriptions of the pieces, through the streets directly to the gallery. There you find a variety of domiciles and sheltering structures that are alternately utilitarian and whimsical, but all with a clear sense of purpose. Included among the Bauhaus inspired architectural pieces are corollary street campaigns such as the miniature sign-mounted billboards that give commentary about the corporatization of resources and technology, as well as his more recent mobiles that balances a laser cut wooden “XAM” tag with a wingspread and soaring bird.

XAM is expanding his architectural design explorations in sustainability while also employing humor along the way.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Many of the models offer satellite TV, although no flatscreen was evident from peering into the windows. XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A modern corollary to the urban practice of sneakers over the wire, with a nod to Street Artist duo Skewville’s flat wooden sneakers on same during the last decade, this new mobile tag by XAM is instantly recognizable from a distance. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Multiple dwellings for the city bird. XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These homes are a commentary on the ongoing housing crises among humans and the banks that rule them. As you can see, entry into the more traditionally designed bird houses is blocked. XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A XAM piece placed in situ.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM Solo Exhibition “Migration-NYC” is currently on view at the Dorian Grey Gallery in Manhattan. Click here for further information.

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