ArtWeek, June 2005
Lauren Davies and Carol Selter at Gallery 16
Amber Whiteside (Excerpt)
Paired for the second time at Gallery 16, Lauren Davies and Carol Selter’s work continue to complement each other. Both artists attempt, in their divergent ways, to capture the forms and patterns of plant and animal organisms.
As if comprises a bevy of creatures immortalized by Davies. Unlike her previous work, for which she amassed the hair of various dog breeds, this new series forgoes use of any part of the real animal. Davies has never sought exact replication – she seeks only to suggest the animal’ presence, whilst highlighting the futility of such an aim. Having researched contemporary taxidermy practices, Davies is aware that as increasingly life-like as the taxidermied animals of today may be, less of the actual animal is used – in the case of endangered species, not even the hair. Davies plays with this notion in a series of pencil drawings in which she dictates paint-by number guidelines for recreating the hair of endangered species like the zebra and cheetah. However reliant on artifice the practice has become, though, taxidermy still exists – for educational purposes as much as to provide hunters with their trophies.
Davies latest studies in taxidermy of varying species are stationed undemocratically around the gallery. Two four-legged creatures are relegated to the floor, while an only vaguely recognizable bird, skunk and lone limb of a deer are showcased separately in wood and glass on the wall. Three penguins, caped in black rubber, command a terry cloth and plastic snowflake covered tabletop, their elaborate mise-en-scene akin to a Christmas nativity scene.
Both artists’ works are held together by domestic materials. Davies’ animals and their habitats are made of paper towels, carpet padding, terry cloth, Astro-turf and flower brocade fabric and other decidedly man-made provisions; Selter’s photographs are imaged on household tiles. Both artists play with the problems of polarizing nature and human beings and of trying to observe, contain and predict nature as if it entirely unrelated to us. By presenting their work in vitrines and modernist grids, Davies and Selter point to their position as artists and/or scientists whose authority attributes truth and values to their subjects.
Davies and Selter do not intend such authority. They welcome the flaws in their documentation of nature.