CAITLIN HACKETT

I grew up surrounded by redwood trees and mountains, by the cold Pacific Ocean and the endless fogs that come with living along the north Pacific current that comes down from Alaska. It was on the northern coast of California where I grew up that my love for nature, mythology and animals flourished. I spent my childhood hiking and camping and at a young age I was taught to respect and love the natural world. In my work I am giving an ode to the natural world I love, the forests and mountains that nourished the fantasies of my childhood. It’s a world that I see under near ceaseless attack, in a war for space that is dominated by we humans. My work alludes to the boundaries that separate what is human from what is animal, and I am fascinated by the way in which people personify or objectify animals; the way in which the human view of an animal can render them into objects of utility, or trustworthy companions, or monstrosities, regardless of that animals true nature. It is this dichotomy that I aim to reveal in my work, the ‘real’ animal versus the animal as it exists in the human mind, an animal mutated by social constructs and mythology alike.

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