“Animal Herds” on view at the Artist and Craftsman in Cambridge, MA until September 2nd.
“Animal Herds” is a mobile installation piece of hundreds of small cut out animal paintings that are assembled in the life size forms of wolves. The wolf is composed of the animals that it eats, including deer, caribou, moose, musk oxen, bison, mice and many others. Each prey animal is painted on polypropylene paper with radiant color bleeds in fluid ink, which is countered by the specificity of the cut animal shape.
“Animal Herds” represents the variety of species that once roamed the United States; some of these animals may have even passed through in this very space in Beverly before. Due to massive extermination campaigns and overdevelopment of natural areas, gray wolves are now endangered in the U.S. except for a small number of states. Their struggle for survival hinges on the presence of a healthy, diverse ecosystem, indicated by the wide variety of species that they subsist on. The energy from the prey is stored in the body of the wolf, becoming part of the predator upon consumption. In this piece, the animals herd together to form their predator and change formation each time the piece is installed, creating a new form of existence.
Animals are directly connected and affected by the rhythms of nature. These rhythms exist from the molecular to the cosmic level: an infinite cycle of birth, life, death, that stretches on beyond comprehension. We are all part of this greater cycle. I hope to pass on a deep respect for the complex survival tale of animals that eat, mate and forage in the wild.
this is the coolest fucking thing ever. of all time. the end.
Art is all about bullshit.