Birdhouses take inspiration from Guggenheim

Tom Dukich

Art form: Assemblies, video, sound.

Best know for: Art that incorporates technology. In the case of his stainless steel birdhouses, it is the over-the-top technology and modern design for the birds.

“People often find my work a little quirky,” says Dukich, “in a good way, I hope.”

Major influence: “Not any one big-name artist really,” he says, “but more fields of knowledge or approaches to problem solving as in art, science, music, law and business.”

Dukich admires the attitude of certain visual artists and musicians and how they do their day-to-day work. “They encourage me to explore and stick my neck out a little,” he says.

When did you start making Museum Birdhouses? Dukich created his first streamlined contemporary birdhouse for a fundraising auction six years ago.

He was inspired by the titanium Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain and the Experience Music Museum in Seattle, both designed by architect Frank Gehry.

“The combination of the technology, the metals used and the unusual shapes appealed to me,” says Dukich. “Plus, I like birds.”

How did you decide on the unique design? “It’s a tradition to make birdhouses modeled after something that humans use,” says Dukich. “Birdhouses are about decoration and design as much as something for a bird. So I thought, ‘What would it be like to have a Bird Museum built by Gehry and what would be in it?’ ”

Dukich decided it would be stainless steel and have pictures of famous birds on the wall, including basketball player Larry Bird, polar explorer Rear Adm. Richard Byrd, The Birdman of Alcatraz, former first lady Lady Bird Johnson and musician Charlie “The Bird” Parker.

“At the auction the bidding was pretty spirited,” reports Dukich. The next year he built a similar one, and it sold, too. Then another model and so on.

“I wouldn’t want to make traditional birdhouses,” he says. “I like the fact that these Museum Birdhouses cause me to struggle with issues like form versus function, salability versus cost, and multiple versus one-of-a-kind. It’s the birdhouse as design world microcosm.”

Process: Dukich starts with a simple sketch and turns that into a cardboard model. “If it works aesthetically and functionally, I make a stainless steel prototype,” he says.

Dukich field tests the prototype with real birds and makes necessary adjustments. He wants birds to actually use his houses.

He measured the temperature inside his stainless steel houses for an entire summer to be certain they were safe for birds. “I don’t know of anyone else who does that,” he says.

If Dukich decides to make multiple copies, he has the design cut out by water jet because he does not want to discolor the stainless steel.

Then the fabrication and finishing starts. “I’m very picky about fit and finish, so it takes a while,” he says.

What keeps you creating? “Curiosity and connecting with how the world works,” says Dukich.