Grace Cope
Undergraduate, Visual Arts Studies
An Extension of Family
animal intestines, wire, wool string, charcoal, pastel, acrylic
This work is an installation of suspended animal intestines shaped with wire and embroidered with wool string. The shadows of the casings are cast over a stylized representation of a phylogenetic tree on the wall behind while notes and recollections alluding to Darwin's personal journal entries are written in charcoal and soft pastel below.
The term "family" is nebulous, and to exclude those beyond the nuclear family would be to facilitate an elitist view of the evolution of the human species. I seek to extend the audience's definition of biological kinship through the physical manifestation of a suspended phylogeny in a primitive medium. This piece functions to confront the viewers with a tantalizing, rhythmic aura that through medium and concept draws a parallel to their own flesh and values. At a closer look, it is apparent that the dictations on animal intestine and scrawled in the background recollect intimate and scientific thoughts on the value of a "family". The shadows cast a visual interrelation between the different quantifications of colonies, prides, and family units, alike, embroidered on the suspended forms to ultimately elucidate the underlying interconnection of species.
