I really wanted to do something that I could share with the city that could be experienced.
Being bigger than I had ever done before, even if it destroyed me.
Before there was pigeon coops all over the neighborhood.
We would stand here, stock here, stock over there, stock on Feta Avenue, stock everywhere
was birds everywhere.
And now it's like we just have a few of us flying birds.
This is why they call me Mikey Rollers, because I got these Rollers and they roll.
There's a little bit of like, well I'll believe it when I see it, mentality.
My experience, my Mikey Rollers, you know, I've seen many birds fly, I can't be taught.
He said if anyone was crazy enough to do this with him, which we obviously are, that he
really wanted this project to be his kind of poetic, lyrical moment, not only in his
career, but in history of the city.
How does a hobby turn into a work of art?
If somebody decides something is art, then it's art and it's just up to you to decide
whether or not you like it or not, you know, but other than that, I can say I don't know
of too many other people that are doing, you know, flying pigeons with lights off of battleship.
I don't know what this has got to do with anything, all I want to do is wish you a lot
of luck like a big shot.
Thanks man.
I meant serious though.
Yeah, we'll see what happens man, we'll see what happens, yeah, we'll see what happens.
This one's about two weeks.
Pigeons have amazing ability to recognize faces.
They definitely know like, you know, who takes care of them.
You know, it's always a matter of questioning I guess for me about like how other people
will perceive it.
I can like practically drive off the highway looking at birds flying, but I think that
a lot of people tend to not pay attention to that kind of thing.
The history with me in pigeons, I found a pigeon when I was a kid.
That was injured and I took care of it and got better and my mother was eager for me to
get rid of it because she thought that pigeons had diseases.
You always take your time.
And the pigeon kept coming back.
As a teenager, when I was climbing around on rooftops doing graffiti and ran away from
home and I'm like really thinking they were like hearty, resilient animals that lived
out on the street.
These kind of rugged survivors and thinking of pigeons as sort of my spirit animal.
My late teens, I ended up renting this pigeon coop for about four years.
I would wake up to the sound of them, you know, cooing every morning.
You know, there'd be pigeons on top of me when I would get up.
That was sort of where it really solidified this intense interest in them.
This is going to be so much fun.
Kind of hard to imagine that all of this in the end is for the performance.
I can't even wrap my head around what that's going to look like.
My fascination with urban waterfront is very much intertwined with my involvement with pigeons.
Both of those are like spaces between the natural and the urban world.
All right, it's almost pigeon o'clock.
So basically, he'll pull up the flag, pigeons on the roof will scatter, Duke probably will
let out a yell.
Somewhere between like a hawk and a cowboy, yep.
A lot of the people that keep pigeons, you know, I think many of them have had extremely
difficult lives and have found this as a way of some sort of sense of peace.
It represents this culture that's dying in this city.
I think that's the important parts of the peace for him.
There's a big piece and a little piece drying up.
The reason that it's disappearing comes from just general misunderstanding and fear.
I really want to try and watch and see that whole piece and figure out who they are because
I get to feel that it's the same guys every time, you know.
That felt like kind of taking the pigeon coop off of the roof and bringing it down to the
street level so that people could actually get up close and experience it.
Definitely makes you look around at your environment in a different way.
I've been out here every night for a month and a half.
Like I hadn't really noticed any stars at all.
I was just staring at this one light, like that's not a pigeon, that's New York actually
has like three or four stars.
There's certain aspects that you can see about the way that they move that is isolated just
by keeping a single light on and them moving in the dark.
They're almost making like a drawing or something in the sky.
I don't really think anybody can expect what they're going to see.
Like, we're going to have enough people here that can sit on all these bleachers tomorrow.
Katie, really.
Everybody make sure their shoes are tied.
I don't like toasting to something before it's done.
You can only refer to it as a drink before the war.
Cheers guys.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
For the war.
For the war.
For the war.
For the war.
For the war.
For the war.
For the war.
For the war.
For the war.
For the war.
Hmm.
Let's see what Don't Think Don't Stop It.
2000 birds in the air?
Come on.
Where you going to see that?
Only in New York City.
Brooklyn.
I don't feel anything at all, but I love war.
Woo!
Woo!
Woo!
Woo!
Woo!
Ha ha ha!
Hey!
Let's go and swim this time!
Ha ha ha!
Woo!
Woo!
Woo!
Woo!
Yeah, it's really amazing to see something just different from anything you know.
Why it's art to me, I don't really try to minceworth pay attention to the natural world.
This thing that you know exists within the city that used to happen on every rooftop is disappearing.
But ultimately so much of it is about the pigeons themselves.
Sometimes it's like people ask like even like why pigeons you know or why not drones.
And that's exactly why this project needed to happen.
Thank you.
Thank you.
