PET/PEST, 2018
PET/PEST
The work was created as part of the HOPE exhibition at Battersea Arts Centre in collaboration with the Wandsworth Museum Archives, forming the first part of BAC Moving Museum. HOPE explores how objects and stories from the past generate art and give hope the the future, by way of the collaborating artists developing new ideas with the objects they have chosen from the museum archives.
BAC recently became the guardian of the Wandsworth Museum collection, forming the BAC Moving Museum. The exhibition is supported through the Museums and Universities partnership Initiative through the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement.
I have chosen A Box of Wooden Animals from the archive, alongside two posters of pest control as representatives of the intricate relationship we have with other animals. They are our companions, friends, food source, helpers, or nuisances depending on our momentary interests.
The work arises from the duality of the chosen articles, in connection to the fascinating history of the Little Brown Dog Statue in Battersea Park. In the early 20th Century this area had the largest number of supporters of the Anti-vivisection Society. The statue caused many riots that eventually ended in the removal of the piece in 1910
The work PET/PEST is a meditaion of the intricate connections we hold with animals.
