My final piece criticises the othering of nature and the human bigotry that enables people to believe that are they are superior to non-human living things. Comprised of a sewer-system sculpture built from second-hand scaffolding pipes, examining the relationship between our containers of waste and the animals we regard as such.
Amongst the sculpture, sitting within an animal trap reconstructed from a used dog cage, my film follows the perspectives of foxes and rats, positioned as ‘the othered’ in a city which forms animal hierarchies based on their economic value. Bringing their narratives up to eye level and confronting the viewer with the realities of those they live amongst but choose to ignore. By pushing my audience to realise the disparities between their own comfort and the animals who experience London like a battleground, I hope to challenge the invisible value systems which allow people to justify cruelty towards some animals and not others.
The film and sculpture intend to work together to speak to how the city traps these animals, forcing them to live in fear and struggling to adapt to gentrification, restrictions, barriers and constant changes in the city.
Perhaps they aren’t so different from us.
