My art practice spans ideas of speciesism, projection, play and oppression in relation to animals, especially in relation to pigs.
Our habits have allowed an invisible speciesism to feed both our minds and appetite for control. We have redefined the idea of ‘the animal’ which seems to justify our overuses of them, not least as symbols to portray ourselves. My art practice portrays these theories as well as dissecting our anthropocentric gaze. The work puts ideas of discomfort and humanness into question in relation to animality and power. We fear otherness. So, we expand the field of non-human/inhuman/ unhuman to mean almost everything. We push notions of inhumaneness, savageness and deny animals sentience, creating false hierarchies. Meanwhile our overconsumption of animal products is hidden behind benign advertising and cartoons which seem to idealise and falsify farm life.
My Pig-man creature has allowed me to explore the emotions, motions, environment, and projection. As well as ideas of nonverbal communication (specifically in children’s play) which has guided my work in the last few months. The symbolism of the slide and ladder communicates the power structures which are overlooked to create a façade of innocence within our treatment and perception of animals.
Speciesism has been made invisible whilst we alter our understanding of ‘the animal’. We push notions of inhumaneness, savageness and deny animals sentience, creating false hierarchies. Meanwhile our overconsumption of animal products is hidden behind benign advertising and cartoons which seem to idealise the lives of animals.
