BIRD SUIT, SYDNEY HEGELE

Invisible Publishing, 2024

The sweetness of a peaches’ first bite strikes me with childlike joy, and a reminder of transience, of summer’s fleeting days, impending endings. In Sydney Hegele’s Bird Suit, peaches represent the opposite of desire; the residents of Port Peter rely on their commodity during tourist season for survival. Yet, they are an excess that need to be preserved into jams to prevent their decay. What represents desire, and belonging, in Bird Suit? The pages pasted onto Georgia’s walls. A well-read copy of Anne Carson’s Glass, Irony and God Isaiah pocketed from his grandfather’s home library. The bird pendant on the chain wrapped around Felicity's neck. Feathers. Hegele imbues each object with the power of a possible future. I recommend this striking, Ontario-based book for its beautiful lasting message: we are worth more than what we remember, we are our possibilities. I may someday forget the details, but I’ll remember the feeling Bird Suit left in my chest. 

––Maia Poon, Vancouver