Oh Robin! - Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Brooklyn Botanic Garden
For the Birds

Oh Robin!

Nina Cooke John
Wood, steel, fabric
24 in. × 13 in. × 6 in.
Ginkgo Allée

A blue wooden board with many pegs has orange ribbon woven through the pegs.
Oh Robin! birdhouse at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
an illustration of a vertical bird perch amid an outline of shrubs and trees.
Concept art by Nina Cooke John.

Artist Nina Cooke John’s birdhouse is an abstracted interpretation of the robin’s act of nest weaving. For Cooke John, the scrappiness and resourcefulness of robins is often unappreciated. “Robins have become invisible to us,” Cooke John explains, “like the grocery store cashier, Amazon delivery worker, bus driver, and other workers who are critical to the running of our city but have faded into the background of our lives.”

  • A smiling woman with short hair stands in front of a vibrant red sculpture

    Nina Cooke John (b. 1972, Jamaica) is a 2022 United States Artists fellow. Recently selected to design the Harriet Tubman monument in Newark, the multidisciplinary Studio Cooke John values placemaking as a way to transform relationships between people and the built environment. The studio was awarded a 2021 AIA Merit Award for the installation “Point of Action.” Cooke John earned her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and a masters in architecture from Columbia University.

    Artist website: cookejohn.com
    Instagram: @studiocookejohn @ninacookejohn

Photo: Ball and Albanese

Listen

For the Robin on My Porch
Written by Andrea Potos. Read by Bette Midler

This recording from The Birdsong Project was selected to complement this birdhouse.

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For the Birds Presenting Sponsor

Logo: Warby Parker