The artist Anton van Dalen has a calling beyond the visual arts: for the past 25 years, he has kept a rooftop coop at his East Village residence, nurturing 35 to 40 exquisite Tippler pigeons at a time. Van Dalen’s avian collection has winged its way to Frieze New York as part of his installation The Pigeon Car (1987), on show at P.P.O.W. Gallery. The installation is a metaphor for immigrant communities everywhere, the artist says. If you snap up the $125,000 work, “you’re also buying [Van Dalen’s] knowledge”, a gallery spokeswoman says: it includes his bird-whispering services.
