Still not quite comfortable with this blogging thing, it's all a bit self indulgent but I spend so much time on the computer for research I might as well put some of it to use I guess.

Recently went to New York and Hampton Lakes, Fl. Tried to see as much as I could, particularly in Chelsea, NY. Cannot get one particular show out of my head,

Kate Clark at Claire Oliver Gallery 513 W26th

Clark's fascination with the tension between animal and human is obvious and even though you expect it to be unsettling, seeing the work in person in installation is very much a psychologically intimidating experience. She works with previously living animals, stitching human faces onto the bodies, transforming bears and coyotes into menacing mythical creatures. The stitches and bolts are too visible to make the creatures seem anything but a disasterous Dr Frankensteinesque experiment.

The effect on the viewer when being confronted by such unnatural beings is quite massive. I couldn't stay in the gallery space longer than a few minutes as I felt that I was being watched, surrounded, sized up by the things. The expressions on the faces are distinctly human, but even the smiling ones are not friendly. Animals usually make me want to touch them, even taxidermied animals in museums have an air about them that I'd want to stroke their head just to check if they're real. But here, I wasn't going anywhere near them. They were too animated, too ready to pounce.