Projects
My practice focuses on the use of animals in art and culture, specifically the boundaries of our relationship with animals.
The viewer has a distorted understanding of what nature is through previous experiences and cultural referances, and by visiting animal parks and zoos the viewer is presented with a cultural product. Theses constructed spaces are a fantasy world, a reconstruction of natural forms. This inturn provides the viewer with the idealsised visions and aspirations being unachieved. I wanted to emphasise the tension between the fake constructions of the environment with the ‘real animals’.
This project explores the ideas surrounding conservation. In particular how we can help to preserve the barn owl so the species can be sustained for future generations. There is a need to raise environmental awareness as a whole, but how can we maintain the amount of care without disrupting their natural behavior. Where do the boundaries between observation and interference lie? Ringing owls began as a conservation initiative to increase owl numbers by providing nest sites. Among other things, the process involves identifying the sex of each bird, measuring the length of the wings, adding coloured tags for identification and documenting their weight.
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The Project started as a documentary project based on taxidermy. I worked closely with a taxidermist in order learn more about the craft. My aim was to question the ethics of taxidermy, and furthermore the ethics of using animals in art altogether.
This project focuses on Carp fishing. The wait, the catch and the release. But why has this become so popular in recent years? What is is about fishing that generates an income of £24,583,342 per year in licences alone? Is it purely about the PB and are there any benefits for the fish?
In the Company of Animals: A Study of Human-Animal Relationships - James Serpell
'What purpose, if any, do pets really serve? Are they simply an outlet for misplaced love? Or four-legged friends who help us to satisfy vital emotional needs? Whatever they are, when we elevate pets to the status of social companions, we undermine the distinction between human and non-human. In other words, pets force us to confront the moral contradictions inherent in our treatment of animals in general.'
The work revolves around the artificial, controlled environments which animals are often placed into. It explores how humans intervene with their lives, removing them from their natural state. Using sensors, the pigeons are allowed to initiate the making of their own image and in some way regain some sort of control.
'Just a happy prisoner' - The Collector 1965
Explores how nature is removed from its original habitats in order for it to become a spectacle for our entertainment. The project examines breeding in captivity and how it contrasts with conservation. Is breeding in captivity justified, as the wildlife does not exist as nature intended, but in a controlled environment?
The Hunt uses a modern pheasant hunt to explore the relationship between humans and nature. Hunting is often portrayed as a a symbol of 'the good life' which can be seen to go further than hunting for our basic survival. By using a subject matter that is so prominent throughout art history, the viewer is able to see it in a more modern context. The project highlights how nature is transformed into a commodity. Is the hunt a ritualised performance of social status, or is it part of our basic relationship to nature?
