"A Tenement For Birds"
Swamp rose, dewberry, buttonbush. Sound familiar? Maybe not.
But to the artist Anina Gerchick, these plants are her medium. She used them and many other native-to-New York perennials to build Birdlink, a 12-foot-tall living sculpture that is a rest stop for migrating birds in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side.
Birdlink is composed of rectangular wire blocks in which Ms. Gerchick installed about 2,000 plants, which she identified with signage. Each plant grows something that migrating birds need to refuel, like seeds, fruit or nuts.
