Hitnes: The Image Hunter: On the Trail of John James Audubon

In late 2015, Italian artist Hitnes embarked on a twenty-city road trip throughout America with the goal of retracing the endeavors of John James Audubon in the 19th century. Audubon’s ambitious goal was to document all of the birds in the country, and these well-known drawings made up his book The Birds in America. Captivated by the enormous scope of Audubon’s goal, Hitnes traveled across the country, aiming to cover in three months what Audubon did in as many decades. Hitnes’s journey on one hand allowed him to explore the state of the birds nearly two centuries after Audubon encountered them. But it also became an all-encompassing performance project in which he gathered materials and made sketches, created public murals, and documented his interactions with a wide range of Americans in video.

Hitnes’s exhibition will document his journey, elaborating on what it is that drives a person to dedicate multiple decades of their life to pursuing an obsession like Audubon did. The exhibition will feature a range of work informed by his own expedition, and he will include other objects and ephemera collected on his trek. The exhibition will also be accompanied by the premiere of a feature-length documentary film on Hitnes’s trip, directed by filmmaker Giacomo Agnetti. Hitnes was an artist-in-residence at the Halsey Institute in the Summer of 2017.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website 

Marsh Wren (Attraction), 2017 Watercolor and graphite on paper in wooden frame 27 1/2 x 39 3/8 inches 70 x 100 cm) 

Barn Owl (One thing done well, only one), 2017 Watercolor and graphite on paper in wooden frame 39 3/8 x 27 1/2 inches (100 x 70 cm)