snæbjörnsdóttir / wilson
home (a)fly nanoq: big mouth lullabies fuglar you and me uncertainty matrixbetween you and me is a visual art project that explores human relationships to the seal, an animal widely appropriated in Western culture for a variety of human representations and emotions. For the purpose of the project, we have focused mainly on this animal in a specific geographical context, which offers access to a multiplicity of human attitudes towards the animal. The project aims to draw attention to (some of) those attitudes in an attempt to separate the ‘representational’ animal from the ‘living’ animal.
The research for this project is in three stages:
The first stage was instigated by collaboration between seven female artists over a period of one year from mid 2006 to 2007. This collaborative research was conducted during a series of research trips in which the subject of the enquiry, i.e. the seal, was at the centre of discussions on anthropomorphism and social positionality. The second stage in the research process was inspired by the exhibition Blubber that was the result of the above mentioned collaboration, at the Seal Centre in the north of Iceland. After that we decided to continue a discursive research of the subject by conducting a series of interviews on camera with people who have had some contact with the seal through observation, caring and hunting. The third and the final research stages of the project were the filming of a preparation for a traditional seal hunt and in relation to this project the subsequent process of taxidermy – the ‘making’ of a stuffed seal.
