Cardinal Code Three

Decommissioned fire hose, surplus furring strips, birch dowels,Northern Cardinal bird call, aluminum rivets 
36 x 216 x 4"
Concept: Sherry Davis; Design/Fabrication: Sherry Davis & Mark Alhadeff

For Cardinal Code Three, Davis used discarded fire hose donated by local fire departments to translate the sound of a Northern Cardinal’s alarm call into a physical form. When Davis and her partner visited the park, they were struck by the chorus of bird calls around them — some of them seemed to be warning about the human presence on bird turf. This immediately made her think of first responders and sirens. For firefighters ‘Code 3’ generally means an emergency response with lights and sirens, so the title brings those worlds together: the cardinal’s call, the firefighter’s call, and a second life for the hose itself.

You can hear the sound that inspired the work by clicking play in the audio player below.