the woman and the falcon, 2022

the woman and the falcon, 2022

Please note: this work has not been exhibited yet and is password protected. You can contact me for access.

the woman and the falcon, 2022
3 channel-4k video installation
duration 9:47

In John Berger’s beautiful essay, “Why Look at Animals?”, written in 1977 , he says that consumer societies broke down the traditions that existed between man and nature, traditions that recognized that “animals were with man at the center of his world.” In my three channel video, the woman and the falcon,  and in the single channel video, I to Eye, the symbolism of the naked female falconer, surely anathema to most falconers, and the acceptance of the wildness of the bird, were my point of departure. 

Communication between the bird and the falconer is imperative. Through repetition and trust the bird learns to hunt with its handler and knows that a reward can be expected in return, yet this does not eliminate choice on the part of the bird. Every time the falcon is set loose to fly, it can decide not to return and go free. Berger traces a shift in man’s relationship to animals, one in which the exchange of the gaze between them disappears. “In the accompanying ideology, animals are always the observed. The fact that they can observe us has lost all significance. What we know about them is an index of our power and thus an index of what separates us from them.” This work is an attempt to explore a recuperation of the exchange of the gaze between the woman and the falcon and to consider the implications of that attempt in relation to the current devastation of our environment. This work is part of an ongoing exploration of embodiment, both with respect to new technologies and with respect to the natural environment.