Songs of a Decoy

Songs of a Decoy presents the work of five emerging artists—Rusty Adelstein, Jonathan Dinetz, Aydan Huseynli, Cameron Lasson, and Kira Wilson—in their NYCxDESIGN debut.

One autumn day, a small squirrel family came across a very special tree. This tree stood twice as tall as the others in the neighborhood, with bark unusually smooth and needles unusually green. Its towering stature reminded Mrs. Squirrel of the old-growth forests of her youth—a perfect picture of sylvan splendor. She moved her family in promptly.

The squirrels found their new home to be quite convenient. While other trees sagged and splintered in winter storms, theirs stood tall and unmoving. When they left their nuts in the tree’s hollows, they would return to find them heated—sizzling, even. Plus, the cell reception was excellent.

One afternoon, an old owl approached the family forebodingly. He warned that their tree might not be what it seemed. He claimed it came to be in an unusual way: brought in five pieces on massive semi trucks and assembled with a crane. A tree that should have taken a hundred years to grow had instead manifested in a matter of weeks, ushered in by a flock of machines and men. He warned the squirrel family that their tree might be demonic.

“I’m sick of his conspiracies!” proclaimed Baby Squirrel.

“Perhaps our tree is a little odd,” the squirrels admitted to themselves. “It does hum strangely from time to time. But no tree is perfect.” Besides, the squirrels found the white noise soothing; it reminded Mrs. Squirrel of the wind blowing through the pines in the forests of her youth. “It can’t be demonic,” they affirmed to one another.

The owl was a kook. He could never truly know the delight of living in their tree. He had never experienced the seductively predictable placement of its branches, allowing one to leap from bough to bough in a trance-like rhythm. He had never been soothed by the cool touch of the trunk on his paws after a long day, or cradled in the buzzing warmth of its hollows at night. The squirrels brushed the old owl off. After all, this was their beloved home.

Ambitious in scope and material experimentation, Songs of a Decoy invites reflection—amidst hollow boulders and the hum of monopines—on the histories and mythologies embedded in American domestic space.