Adelaide Paul

Since the 1940s, thousands of collies have been bred so that nine transvestite “Lassies” could perpetuate a celluloid, now digitized, mythology about a boy and his dog.  Dogs fascinate me.  For one thing, they are the most morpoholigaclly varied species on the planet, due to the fact that they have been domesticated for thousands of fyears.  Domestication has morphed them into herders, hunters, guards, gladiators, pack ainimals, racers, lap warnmers and, in extreme, festish objects.  Through a kind of canine eugenics, we have produced the brilliant border collie, the lumbering mastiff, the aerodynamic greyhound, and the diminutive Chihuahua, just to name a few.

Domestic animals would not exist as such without humans.  We humans would not have evolved as we have without the animals we have tamed, modified, exploited, eaten and revered.  This may not be a consentual relationship; I would argue, however, that it is most certainly a symbiotic relationship.  My work is about posing questions regarding this complex liaison between species.