pamelaspeight1
Alterity: Unacknowledged
Oil stick and graphite powder on Arches paper, 52 x 42 inches (132.1 x 106.7 cm)
website: pamelaspeight.com/
"Unacknowledged" is one of is a series of eight oil stick and graphite powder drawings titled "Alterity", a philosophical term meaning “otherness”. It refers to the principle of exchanging one's own perspective for that of the other.
Each of the Alterity drawings' main character is a dog. Dogs are perhaps our closest companions in the animal realm. They symbolize a wildness that, regardless of the degree of their domestication, they have to some extent retained of their original, "untamed" nature. The drawings are also populated with additional animal and human forms. There are other elements present too, such as weather (rain), bodies of water, chromosome X-shapes and dotted lines. Each image also contains a word or a line of text that relates to an awareness, or lack thereof, of our intrinsic relationship with animals and, more broadly, the environment as a whole.
Human relationships with animals are complex and varied. We often view them through our own lens, as though they exist in relation to our needs or compete with us for space and resources. Like them, we began in "wilderness", but we humans have evolved into animals that are for the most part detached from cycles in nature. Many of us feel this loss acutely and strive to re-enter this wilderness. Is it possible to co-exist with animals and see them as part of ourselves, yet honor them as unique and mysterious others?
Alterity: Unacknowledged
Oil stick and graphite powder on Arches paper, 52 x 42 inches (132.1 x 106.7 cm)
website: pamelaspeight.com/
"Unacknowledged" is one of is a series of eight oil stick and graphite powder drawings titled "Alterity", a philosophical term meaning “otherness”. It refers to the principle of exchanging one's own perspective for that of the other.
Each of the Alterity drawings' main character is a dog. Dogs are perhaps our closest companions in the animal realm. They symbolize a wildness that, regardless of the degree of their domestication, they have to some extent retained of their original, "untamed" nature. The drawings are also populated with additional animal and human forms. There are other elements present too, such as weather (rain), bodies of water, chromosome X-shapes and dotted lines. Each image also contains a word or a line of text that relates to an awareness, or lack thereof, of our intrinsic relationship with animals and, more broadly, the environment as a whole.
Human relationships with animals are complex and varied. We often view them through our own lens, as though they exist in relation to our needs or compete with us for space and resources. Like them, we began in "wilderness", but we humans have evolved into animals that are for the most part detached from cycles in nature. Many of us feel this loss acutely and strive to re-enter this wilderness. Is it possible to co-exist with animals and see them as part of ourselves, yet honor them as unique and mysterious others?