Opening: 09 September, 6- 8pm
Opening hours: 12 hours window viewing + feeding sessions: Tues, Thurs, Sat 1-
'Budgie Butlins' is a bird’s view on the Butlins holiday camps which had it's hay days in the 1950's and 60's as affordable holiday resorts in the UK and Ireland. This scaled down sculptural installation offers a flock of about 40 lucky budgerigars, donated by the Northern Ireland Budgerigar, Zebra Finch and Foreign Birds Society, a unique Butlins themed holiday, exclusively for budgies. Featuring a caravan park in the form of nesting boxes and additional leisure, pool and recreation facilities, a three-dimensional miniature model landscape, referring back to Victorian dioramas. The distinctive window aspect of PS² will be used to create a voyeuristic spectacle, where animal enjoyment, pet ownership, space and architectural structures are all questioned.

‘Budgie Butlins’ is a fable in the form of an installation, telling stories about living conditions, built constructs and ideal holiday worlds. It is also a critique, how we impose human conditions on pet animals.
Catherine Roberts obsession with birds and her anthropomorphic approach to the subject of birds houses, translates urban issues into the realm of animals. This very original and in some way humorous project combines crafts like model building and form casting to create a quite unusual surrounding for birds.

‘This is an uplifting project and its foremost objective is to make people smile. I try to create an outer worldly scene, a voyeuristic spectacle, an updated still life influenced by early Victorian encasements of the natural world.  I am looking, whether it is possible for animals to derive pleasure (in a good way) through architectural means etc.  My work isn't so much about the critical aspects of bird keeping, it is about the positive. It’s optimistic! Yes there is questioning, but I would like people to come to their own conclusions.’ Catherine Roberts (email exchange)

Many thanks to the Northern Ireland Budgerigar, Zebra Finch and Foreign Birds Society and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Northern Ireland for their assistance and help.

Find out more about the history of seaside holiday http://www.seasidehistory.co.uk/camps.html

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