The Nest brings together three artists working with the motif of the bird to explore the interplay - and, at times, collision - of nature, architecture, and human ambition. Proposed variously as symbols, foils or casualties in these works, the bird, the nest and the egg crystallise the tensions between freedom and constraint, nature and artifice, and the often-illusory and constructed nature of power in the corporate workplace and society.

H M Baker screenprints the image of a dove with its heart gouged out by a peregrine falcon onto neutrally-toned carpet tiles of the type prevalent in corporate interiors. A population of peregrine falcons is known to nest at the top of Canary Wharf’s high-rise office buildings, an evocative meeting of nature, capital and architecture. The falcon – a bird of prey known for its speed, precision, and adaptability – presents a compelling metaphor for the high-stakes, fast-paced culture of the financial district it overlooks and the competitive, rapacious and sometimes isolating nature of its politics and hierarchies. Perched above the city, the nesting birds image both power and vulnerability, the balance of ambition, autonomy and dependency in both nature and commerce, and the predator-prey dynamics integral to the formation of capitalism.

The work Julian Kay is accompanied by a film poster of Paul Schrader’s neo-noir crime drama American Gigolo, released in 1980 and heralding a decade that would prove pivotal for the rise of corporate aesthetics and the dominance of financial hubs like Canary Wharf and Wall Street. Baker is interested in professionalism as a form of performance, requiring the adoption of specific aesthetics and behaviours. In American Gigolo, Richard Gere’s character Julian Kay embodies this theatricality by presenting as a professional corporate class worker in Armani suits while performing the labour
of a sex worker for a wealthy clientele, complexifying the distinctions between the person who works and the person who lives. Stylish, self-assured and seductive, Julian initially presents as a kind of bird of prey, yet the precarity and illusory nature of this image and its status are swiftly revealed when he finds himself framed for a crime by those he is ultimately at the service of in society’s class and economic pecking orders, exposing the reality of power and subordination in work and society.

The ideological underpinnings of corporate aesthetics, design and their obfuscation of intention foreground Freja Sofie Kirk’s moving image work Killing, Kidding, Colliding, which follows a bird in flight navigating a sleek landscape of empty lobbies, offices, and conference rooms in an imposing bank building in Frankfurt. This is juxtaposed with occasional glimpses of lush nature, a forestscape
in dappled sunlight, which cut back to shots of cut flowers, potted trees, and lurid terrariums decorating the bank’s interiors. The climax occurs when the bird is heard colliding with a glass facade of the building and transformed into taxidermy, commodified, now rendered another object for display. Glass, a material central to modern architectural design, is shown to be simultaneously revealing and deceptive, making things visible yet untouchable, which speaks directly to corporate buildings’ authoritative and symbolic nature, the apparent transparency, reflectiveness and smoothness of which belie their exclusivity, insularity and dealings. The bird’s chirruping, distinctly disembodied and alienated within the slick, deserted, man- made spaces of the bank, highlights the high artifice of its design and the carefully orchestrated impasses between body, autonomy and architecture in such buildings.

The conflict between nature and artifice is the central theme of Herman Hesse’s 1919 novel Demian which provides the thesis of a new work by Shinoh Nam, who collages pages from Demian and Albert Camus’ 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus with fortune cookie notes and industrial building materials. The two stories present distinct allegories of human existence but share a common interest in existential themes of destiny, our control over it, and the creation of meaning in a seemingly indifferent or chaotic world. The Myth
of Sisyphus, explores the idea of absurdity—life’s lack of inherent meaning and the human struggle to find purpose despite this.
Using the Greek myth of Sisyphus, a man condemned to eternally
roll a boulder uphill only for it to roll back down, Camus defends persistence in the face of futility. Demian, in turn, explores self- discovery and individuality through a deeper understanding of life’s purpose, sometimes outside societal norms - flying the nest, so-to- speak. Narrator Emil Sinclair, a boy from a middle-class home, grows up in what is described as a Scheinwelt—a “world of illusion.” His life is marked by a struggle between an illusory world of appearances and the realm of spiritual truth. Inspired by enigmatic classmate Max Demian, Emil gradually rejects the shallow ideals of societal appearances and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. In the story, the motif of the bird, a sparrowhawk on a coat of arms above the doorway to Demian’s house, becomes a symbol of the higher truth and individuality that Demian represents, having broken free from the “egg” of conventional norms.

Eggs and nests speak to transient incubation, architectural solubility and fleeting functionality, interests at the core of Nam’s practice and implied in the work’s title, which rejoices in the potential for transformation: I often searched for stud walls in rooms. A light tap, a hollow sound, and a surge of thrill would rise, as if I were in rapture. For exhibition purposes, Nam includes the wall dust from
his work’s installation in the display. The artist expresses his distrust in architectural discourse’s claims to permanence and eternity, instead encouraging us to consider buildings as malleable as the inhabitants they might host. In the work, passages from Hesse and Camus’ novels are scrawled onto plasterboard, with words connoting negativity erased in a gesture of introspective redaction. Nam includes a further phrase concealed inside Demian, on the opening page of Chapter 5: “Der Vogel kämpft sich aus dem Ei” (“The bird fights its way out of the egg”). This hidden note is not visible unless the work is destroyed.

H M BAKER lives and works in London. Baker’s film, performance and print works explore the choreography of late capitalism, interrogating forms of labour that condition daily life and shape experience.

Baker has previously exhibited and/or presented live work at Ginny on Frederick, London (2024); SITE Gallery, Sheffield (2022); David Roberts Arts Foundation, London (2022); Mimosa House, London (2019); Becky’s Unit, London (2019); Chateau International at Tenderbooks, London (2018); Cell Project Space, London (2018); Guest Projects, London (2018); The Koppel Project, London (2017); Mom’s Favorite, Los Angeles (2016); The Depot, London (2016). Her moving image work BIG TIME was shortlisted and screened as part of the CIRCA Prize 2024. Baker was part of the Jan Van Eyck Artist Residency programme (2023-2024) and was artist-in-residence at The Koppel Project Hive (2017).

FREJA SOFIE KIRK (b. 1990) is a visual artist based in Copenhagen. Her work spans video, photography and text and examines the inner mechanisms of images, and the ways in which we are constantly shaped by the visual, architectural, and linguistic structures around us, and the systems of power we are part of. Kirk’s video installations are characterised by their hypnotic affective force where captivating sequences draw the viewer into stories around power, architecture, commodities, fetishism, and the choreography of labour, challenging perception through sensorial and cinematic techniques.

Kirk graduated with an MFA from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2024. She was the subject of solo exhibitions at Simian, Copenhagen (2024) and Inter.pblc, Copenhagen (2024), and has been included in group shows at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (20240; 5533, Istanbul (2023); Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen (2022); Bianca D’Alessandro, Copenhagen (2022); Kunstforeningen Gl. Strand, Copenhagen (2020); Kunsthal Århus, Århus (2018); Kunstverein Wiesen, Frankfurt (2016). Her films have been screened at CPH:DOX, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Oberhausen International Shortfilm Festival, Uppsala International Shortfilm Festival among others.

SHINOH NAM (b. 1993) was born in South Korea, lives and works in Berlin. His work revolves around the concept of architectural fragmentation, collapsing structures, and the ruin of sculpture. He received a Meisterschüler from Monica Bonvicini at the Universität der Künste in Berlin (2022) and previously studied Fine Art and Architecture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Donatella Fioretti, Lothar Hempel, Rita Mcbride and Jürgen Drescher (2015-2021). Before moving to Germany, Nam worked in Photography and Visual Media in Seoul, where he also obtained a qualification in psychological counseling.

Nam will be the subject of a solo show at NADAN, Berlin, in 2025. His work has been exhibited at Stilllife, New York City (2024); Wehrmuehle Museum, Biesenthal (2023); Kunsthalle Bauhaus, Dessau (2022); The Culture Embassy of the Republic of Korea, Berlin (2022); Darmstädter Sezession Museum, Darmstadt (2022); KARMA International, Zürich (2021); SOMA art space, Berlin (2021); Kunstverein am Rosa– Luxemburg–Platz, Berlin (2021). His work is held in the Burger collection (Hong Kong) and the Gilbert Zinsler collection (Vienna). He was awarded the UdK Berlin Art Award in 2023.