SWAMPSCOTT — Outside of Town Hall sits a very unique trash receptacle.
Resident and artist Stefanie Timmermann’s “Bird Food” sculpture was created to raise awareness of beach pollution in an interactive way.
The 9-foot-tall piece, which Timmermann first created in 2023 after being inspired by observing herons at Judkins Pond in Winchester, is designed to look like one of the birds. Its hollow and transparent interior is meant to be filled with waste found in or near bodies of water.
“My sculpture’s name is not an accident — sadly, birds often mistake plastic for food and ingest it and it is estimated to be the result of over 1 million bird deaths a year,” Timmermann wrote on the exhibit’s website.
During the creation process, Timmermann restricted herself to only using certain materials.
“I decided since it’s an environmental piece that I would go ahead and limit myself to anything that I could source as a recycled, donated, or reused material,” Timmermann explained.
The heron’s interior structure was built using two tomato cages. Timmermann received donations of hardware cloth fencing and chicken wire from friends to construct the exterior.
“The only thing I bought was basically three rebar sticks,” Timmermann said.
A small fake fish, which Timmermann dug up on the beach, can be found in the bird’s mouth.
“Bird Food” will be a centerpiece of Swampscott’s Earth Fest, which will take place this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Town Hall lawn. Timmermann hopes that when the event is in “full swing,” attendees can collect trash from the beach and use it to fill the sculpture. She also hopes to be able to teach children the importance of recycling and the difference between what can be reused and what cannot.
“I was thinking of making a bag with 10 items, and then the younger kids can go ahead and say, ‘Is it trash or recycling?’” Timmermann said. “And then they can put it in two little bins.”
Earth Fest will also feature “intertidal” animals from the Northeastern Science Center, free American hornbeam trees distributed by the Tree Committee, and food from TJ’s Taste Truck.
Timmermann, who is originally from Germany, first moved to Swampscott in 2009. Timmermann’s original medium of choice for her art was photography. Her passion for environmental artwork began five years ago when she spent time with an artist in the village of Cazenovia, N.Y.
“It’s just so beautiful and pristine in lots of ways. It really drives it home how suburban my plot of land is and how close to Boston we are,” Timmermann said. “I really felt that even there, you could start seeing how the environment was being degraded.”
