Artistic Remit for DOG Installation
The starting point of the Dog installation came from asking
what would happen if I placed a cardboard dog with tag saying
" Stray Dog, please take me " on a street in London?
I was interested in the people's response to this art object in a public space.
Do people consider a cardboard dog as an art object ?
Do they take it home as a replacement for a real pet dog ?
Do they have it in their home for a while then eventually pop it into a recycling bin?
We live in a circle of consumer culture:
purchase, take possession/ ownership - make redundant - throw away or recycle.
DOG is made out of humble, everyday material close to the daily life of people, nothing precious.
The sheer number of dogs in the installation change that quality and will create an impact which is itself precious.
Depending on how the dogs are placed a different psychological play will come into the installation.
The individual dog sculptures are of materials commonly regarded as the means of packaging
and as such disposable; cardboard, wrapping paper, polystyrene and tape.
Even so they manage to possess their own identity and through the carefully constructed form tap into that ancient relationship between humans and dogs.
This is a strong emotive link and the cultural response to dogs differs in each of the communities of our multi-cultural urban environment.
Historically "walking the dog" is the English tradition.
Visitors to London from a Borneo village enquired from their hosts why there are so many crazy people “walking the dog” in our street.
A dog on a piece of string was a clear sign of human insanity for them.
Dogs can represent all of the continuity between friendship and aggression and so,
within the frame of this model "Dog" lies many unexpected components of cultural reaction and statement.
These initial reactions and processes are then further developed by not simply allowing
but empowering the audience to take a dog home with them if they so choose.
To not only see the sculpture but keep part of it for themselves, going beyond looking at art to possessing it and in so doing completing the installation.
The “Dog” project takes on the idea of ownership in the consumer society,
it questions value and raises issues of disposability not only in the material world but in the performance of our relationships.
By projecting the installation into that idealised space called gallery and then facilitating the audience to take part of that gallery space, part of that art space and an element of that installation home, new relationships with place are formed.
There already exists many and varied historical social memories of distinct relationships and shared imagery
with dogs idealized in the space of ‘society' and the installation draws on that familiarity of feeling for an audience response.
Whilst the huge pack of dogs stand their ground, the boundaries between the installation and the place can be hard to distinguish
Perhaps the boundaries between acceptance and rejection are similarly altered.
Ultimately, “Dog” seeks to present the audience with surprise, recognition and personal/group realizations of our relationships,
how we form them, our needs and how we own those relationships.
At the end of the installation the audience can take their new relationship with their dog,
with their gallery space, back to their home, and back to their own environment.