Caitlin Perrigo

www.caitlinperrigo.com
@caitlinperrigo_art

Caitlin Perrigo (she/her) is a multimedia artist based in Biddeford, ME. Perrigo’s practice explores the uncomfortable yet honest relationship between humans and nature. Too often, the lives of non-human bodies are overlooked, and she elevates non-humans to a level of mournability typically reserved for humans. Rooted in the Maine community, her preemptive ecological memorials embrace slow and intimate forms of reflection within local living networks, urging viewers to participate in acts of ecological care. Perrigo’s work has been exhibited across the Northeast; including the ICA at MECA&D, 82 Parris Gallery, Space Gallery, and the Beard and Weil Fine Arts Gallery. Additionally, her work was acquired by the Wheaton College Private Collection. A 2023 recipient of both the Beinecke Scholarship and Phi Beta Kappa Ruth Redding Graduate Scholarship, she graduated with a BA degree from Wheaton College and is currently pursuing her MFA at Maine College of Art & Design.


Shared Pathways is a preemptive ecological memorial that renders the culturally invisible violence of bird-window collisions. In this work, bird-window strikes function as a metonym for the broader violences of the Anthropocene, translating dispersed ecological harm into a legible, mournable scale through the quantifiable loss of birds. Operating across the past, present, and future, this work mourns the lives of non-human beings already taken, confronts the conditions that produce ecological harm, and anticipates further loss if these systems remain unchallenged.

Composed of around 160 hand-sculpted ceramic birds, this installation materializes the death of non-humans, allowing viewers to inhabit the weight of loss and recognize themselves within structures of harm. The use of white draws from the visual language of memorialization, conveying absence while allowing the forms to oscillate between visibility and invisibility within the gallery space. This instability mirrors ecological violence that is present yet often overlooked.

Grounded in a diverse display of Maine backyard species, including familiar birds such as the American Robin and the Black-capped Chickadee, Shared Pathways transforms ecological harm into a local, relational experience. Through this familiarity, viewers are invited to participate in forms of ecological care and reflection that feel personal and urgently relevant to the community Shared Pathways serves. An accompanying resource extends this invitation beyond the gallery, offering accessible resources to reduce bird strike deaths.