Durational video work — Zoom series

Birds II is the companion work to Birds I within the Zooms video series.

The structure of the piece mirrors the earlier work but unfolds in reverse.

Where Birds I gradually builds its composition frame by frame, Birds II begins fully assembled. Five vertical video frames appear simultaneously, each containing a zoomed-in view of a bird observed from a distance.

Across the opening moments of the video, the frames begin to disengage one by one.

The first frame slowly zooms outward until the subject dissolves back into the surrounding sky. Once the zoom completes, that frame disappears while the remaining frames continue looping. Each subsequent frame follows the same process, gradually reducing the composition until only a single image remains.

Eventually, that final frame also recedes.

The screen returns to the empty field from which the work began.

As in Birds I, the subjects are birds encountered at a distance—small figures that momentarily become legible through proximity before disappearing again into the broader environment. The work does not treat them as symbols or narrative actors. They function as transient points of attention within a much larger visual field.

Within the broader Zooms series, Birds II completes the structural cycle introduced in Birds I. Rather than constructing context step by step, the work begins with full recognition and gradually removes the conditions that made that recognition possible.

The viewer witnesses context dissolving in real time.

What was visible becomes distant.

What was clear becomes abstract again.

Meaning does not collapse abruptly.

It fades.

Credits

Recorded by Seth Dager

Edited by Seth Dager