Video vignettes of animals roam across the gallery floor, slightly out of focus—until they are “captured” by viewers using handheld screens positioned around waist height. These screens, covered in fur and shaped to be cradled, evoke an experience that is both intimate and voyeuristic.
The footage was sourced from a wide array of live webcams pointed at animals on farms, wildlife preserves, and private homes, which I collected over the span of a year and compiled into continuously streaming loops. The installation draws inspiration from John Berger’s essay “Why Look at Animals?”, in which he reflects on the shifting dynamics of human-animal relationships since the 19th century. Berger observes the dissolution of “every tradition which has previously mediated between man and nature.”
In response, my work explores a contemporary form of mediation—one that did not exist when Berger wrote in 1980. Today, we orient our webcams towards animals and use our internet browsers to watch them. Perhaps we do so because they offer a spectacle. Or perhaps it is because animals continue to matter to us, and we seek to remain connected to them—even in their absence.
