Series: Walking by Geordie Millar - 2006
walking
The Saint John Arts Centre, Saint John, NB. 2006
An installation of 16 large-scale charcoal drawings, averaging 5 x 6 feet essaying the cautious physical response of a young cow moose to gallery viewers.
Designed to fit the exhibit space, from the right-side entrance, the animal begins from a resting recline, stands and walks off on a 16 drawing cycle across the gallery walls. At the end she turns, drops and settles into cautious observation.
The studies themselves are of anatomy, of bone form, mass plane and the locomotive characteristics of a young moose.
In form and function, they are figure drawings. Produced using life studies made with a captive moose, and a steel and wax animation armature of the animal for posing the walk.
As installation, their cogency lies in scale & unity. The artist hopes the viewer feels they are in the center of the action, observing but not affecting. As a whole they animate a walk cycle, a very short film on a very large scale.
A well known figurative painter told the artist during the production of the work he thought they would have been truly dignified figure studies if only they were human. For the artist this supported a core idea of the show; what is it we assume is beneath us in wild nature? Can we cut through anthropomorphic blinders to a more broadly biophilic harmony with representations of nature?
Blacklisted
