30 November: dreams about drawing.
Today I received a flattened foxhead in the mail.
It is an artist's submission for our drawing room call for art and exhibit, SPLIT, happening in December 2007 in Maine.
I was both shocked, horrified, and fascinated by its lifelike quality, its resemblance to my own cats, its nicely preserved fur and colorings, uber real, without eyes or teeth, and a black button nose, flat. Inside the triangular book which it covers, is a text written in a foxy brown ink. I haven't read the book all yet, but I saw references to roadkill and transformation. How does this piece relate to SPLIT, I wondered. Is it merely the splitting of text, or the severing of a head from its body. Really, the most unusual mail art I have ever received.

This is an example of why when there are fewer rules and driected guidelines, there are less expectations, and people feel more free to explore, experiment, and they become more open to the possibilities of self-expression. One does not have to make art that looks like art, rather, one makes work to delve into some unchartered territory, and it becomes a way to respond to ones surroundings and ones feeling. I think this piece, which admittedly I wanted to discredit somehow at first, is growing on me as a compelling response to the theme, provocative and certainly, laden with meaning. Thank you artist, for inviting a range of feelings to surface, for the simplicity and complexity of this work, and for taking risks on so many levels.

roadkill
animal human relations
animal as fur
animal rights
animal as resiurces and useful material
commodity
vanity
speed
highways
car culture
SUV's
boundaries/territories
our disregard for nature/our craving to domiate nature/our carelessness
our awe of nature/our fear of nature/ our passion for nature
our constructions of nature
our constructions or what nature is
our ambivalence