The Heart in a Digital World

I’ve always used wildlife as my subject. There is something about animals that brings me back to what is physical and instinctive. Their relationships are expressed through movement, proximity and behaviour.

That became increasingly interesting to me as more of our lives moved into the digital world. We have more ways than ever to communicate, yet so much of that connection can be reduced to a symbol.

The heart is perhaps the simplest example. We send one with a message. We place one beneath a photograph. We tap it to show appreciation or support. It can mean love, encouragement, acknowledgement, or sometimes almost nothing at all.

I became interested in what sits behind the symbol.

What happens when you take the symbol away?

I didn’t want to draw a heart and then surround it with animals. Instead, I wanted to compose relationships between animals where the idea of the heart could emerge without ever being drawn.

A trunk curves around another body. A head rests against another. Bodies overlap. A smaller animal disappears partly into the protection of a larger one. The animals are real, but the encounters are composed. Through their proximity, they begin to create another form.

Sometimes that form resembles a heart.

That became the central question behind Wild Hearts.

Not How do I make a heart?

But:

Where can I find one?

Each work is another attempt to answer that question. The animals change. The relationships change. But the investigation continues.

The heart isn’t something I am trying to draw.
 It is something I am finding in the way the animals come together.