“...in the time before this time, when the world was unfinished...people then were animals. Animals were people. They wore each other’s masks and parkas.”
Tom Lowenstein, ‘Ancient Land: Sacred Whale, The Inuit Hunt and its Rituals’
The challenging environmental problems we face today are urging us to reconsider the way we view the natural world. A new relationship needs to emerge between the human and the more-than-human, and ways to rethink our place within species are needed.
Based on research done within the British Museum’s collection of Inuit artefact, a head-piece representing a whale, made out of eggshell, was produced alongside a series of works on paper.
The head-piece references ancient beliefs that whale and human spirits can be interchangeable. This piece represents the head of a beluga, a white whale living in Arctic waters, but has two holes so a human can wear it and see through it. This way an attempt to create a portal from humans to whales was made, inciting wearers to see, think, move and behave as a whale would.
The eggshells were collected from cafes and canteens, saving waste from landfill. The fragility of eggshells, their cracked textures, and their ghostly shade also echo the Arctic's precarious state during climate change.
Studies from the British Museum collection
These works have been shown at the Nunnery (London), the Pump House Gallery (London), and Fjúk Arts Centre (Iceland).