WHEN THE HUNTER GATHERS

When the Hunter Gathers explores hunting as a complex and increasingly marginalized human activity. By staging various mediated encounters with the rituals, methods, and emotional meanings of modern hunting, I examined one small (but loaded) piece of the experiential distance that separates us from the lives of our ancestors. Many images in the work, both moving and sculptural, centered on scenes of seeming tenderness between humans and their wild prey. These images, 'rescued' from hunting videos and the Internet, complemented images of me engaged in ritual archery, (experiential performative work I also did as part of this project). A central sculptural work, Hindsight, featuring a taxidermist's skeletal deer paused at an oil-dark pool, surrounded by a phalanx of arrows that had just missed their mark, expressed for me the core enigma, of this initially mournful body of work. In making this series of twelve multi-media pieces, I worked from the initial stance of grief, but eventually reached a new and unexpected place of empathy for both modern hunter and modern prey.