Content List •
Box with voodoo doll – Human-animal spiritual relationship (fear of the other) • Photographs of shrine – area with incense, candles, figures, poster type of image, flower garlands. • Suitcase to hold collection in. Painted with panels telling story of the animal. At one with humans, hunting and gathering alongside them. Their young getting captured for pets, the adults getting killed for fur, feathers, horns, teeth and meat. Resources taken from animal such as lakes and food (their natural habitats). Clothes, weapons, instruments and jewellery made from the animal products. Humans sat round telling folk law in order to put fear into the animal so it is seen as a threat and can be killed without conscience. (survival of the fittest). • 4 month old young preserved in jar – perhaps with glycerine depending if it makes the paint run? • Matchbox shrine. • Animal made into a toy – takes respect away from the animal – needs to be painted. • 4 photo frames • Larger pencil illustrations in circular frames – anatomical drawings and drawings of garments/objects made from animal product. • 3 jars; animal hair, animal feather, plant sample from natural habitat. • Fake book – caveman painting inside on shell /nut shell something. The food they ate.
Cabinet of Curiosities
• The previous slide gives some examples of animal inspired work such as the fashion of Alexander McQueen and the specimens (actual animals) at the Hunterian Museum. Artworks such as Ridable and Cow Girl are also here to depict the postmodern animal in art. I wanted my art to challenge our current conceptions of animals and our relationships with them. We accept the way things are. But it is the place of the postmodern animal to challenge this and to cut into the ongoing discourse. • In the next slide is my pencil observations of Credit Posteri. The faces are really important because they depict the role of the animal. The baby face has big eyes and ears but other features are small, characteristics that most other young in the animal kingdom have, and something humans have been proven to be attracted to. The young are depicted as being exploited by humans by being taken away from their parents and used as pets. • The adult face on the right had to be ‘scary’ and threatening. The horns, tusks and sharp teeth portray this as well as the strong frown in the eye brows. This makes the eyes look more squinted too which helps to convey a threatening look. I made sure the young's eye brows were tilted the other way, this is a very unthreatening and vulnerable emotional look.
Inspired by my research, particularly that in India, I decided I would create a shrine to the animal as spirituality is a big part of humans relationships with animals. I used flower garlands, candles, paintings, ribbons and my own painted props like the figures below. I am really happy with how it turned out and I think it definitely had spiritual vibe even though it was a totally made up animal! Very weird how this combination of things and darkness and candle light can imbue this atmostphere!
Here is the expensive and extremely valuable Credit Posteri egg shells. These are proposed as to be sold as either full eggs to eat, for food departments in Harvey Nichols or Harrods for example. Or the egg shells are sold themselves because they are so rare, beautiful and precious. I decorated an egg box really ornately and used lots of metallic colours because I wanted to make it look precious.
I used the shells then to pretend they had just been hatched from. I had previously painted these in metallic colours. I wanted them to look special and pretty but not unrealistic so I didn’t make them too elaborate. Here they lay in flowers, aiming for a theme of beauty in nature that the humans destroyed when they slaughtered the animal.
This is a little miniature shrine. I used a match box. I painted it and cut it up. I then used metallic pens to draw the adult and young Credit Posteri on both sides, and wrote the name inside the flaps. I also created an embellished adult depiction in the centre. I wanted it to be an intimidating image because the spirituality of the animal is taken seriously (as it is in real life.).
- Cave painting. This is because I wanted to show a historical story line of the animal-human relationship.
This is a pencil drawing in an oval frame. This was used to depict the use of animals in human modelling etc – used as a prop to enhance the power of the image and the model. (exploited.)
This is a pencil observation of a Credit Posteri’s tusk and teeth. This animal was poached for its teeth as they were very valuable in jewellery. (I would propose to make these jewellery objects but time constraints made the actual making too rushed.)
This is inspired by the collection at the Hunterian Museum and also by Dions Taxonomy work where he focusses on the concept of classification. I painted a My little Pony. I cut off parts and added parts such as feathers. I would have loved to have put some liquid or jell in the jar to make it look more realistic but I was worried that the paint on the animal would run. I like that the jar is slightly too small as I think this gives elements of distortion which help to add a disturbing element to the piece. I would try my best to make it more realistic (e.g. shinier nose and eyes) in future.
In three jars I put a) a credit posteri feather, b) a plant extract from the credit posteri’s natural habitat (before they were caught by humans) and c) a specimen of their hair (I wanted to paint this a different colour – or maybe spray paint it.)
This is a voodoo doll based on the Credit Posteri. It is kept in a sacred hand painted box with the face of the adult animal on the front. Humans used to use this to ‘cast spells’ and punishments on others who had angered them. This animal was used because it was thought to have sacred powers.
These paintings were used to depict the Credit posteri young as pets for rich humans. They were the symbol of power and wealth. As not only could the owner afford to buy one, but they also then had the power of that animal as a weapon or hunting steed etc. Being able to kill the mother and capture its baby was a huge achievement to humans.
This acrylic painting was used to depict mans dominance over the animal. I painted it in renaissance style but did it quickly in acrylics. I used a reference image but replaced the horses with the Credit Posteri.
One side of the case which all of the objects are contained in. I wanted to keep them all in this as I think it looks like a more complete collection and more like a cabinet of curiosities‌ even though its not a cabinet.
This acrylic painting was to depict the exploitation of Credit posteri as slaughtered for meat.
On the back of the case the story of the Credit posteri and their relationship with humans will be told.
A human exploiting the Credit posteri by riding it and keeping it as pet.
Like the elephants riden by kings, talked about in my dissertation, the Credit posteri is used to imbue power into the human rider, adds fear to their audience/enemy.
This was originally a My Little Pony Doll. In future I wouldn’t have just painted it and stuck feathers on‌ I would have actually sewn and added physical material parts to it. Time constraints restricted me here. This shows the animals exploitation and lack of respect by humans as it getds turned into something to play with.
I packed up the pieces inside the case in tissue paper. I wanted it to look like a collection of precious/sacred found objects. It would have been cool to present them in a cabinet. But I liked the idea of it being a box/case. This also gives the audience some interaction with the pieces as they unwrap them and discover more about the animal. Piecing together the puzzle of the Credit Posteri.
The case closes with a royal blood red wooden plank embellished with gold. I used royal colours (gold and yellow) for this case design as I really wanted to make it look precious and expensive‌ and also a bit old fashioned!