Expedition to the Far North & Findings

Expedition to the Far North & Findings is a pair of acrylic paintings responding to the works of naturalist illustrator John James Audubon. The paintings reinterpret one of his popular images, Common Buzzard, through a critical lens. Audubon is recognized as an American symbol for wildlife conservation. Over 500 wildlife organizations in North America are named after him. Audubon’s work and writings document his life, detailing his violence toward wildlife and land inhabited by indigenous peoples, under the guise of “exploration.” Further, each painting he made was from direct observation of birds he hunted and killed. By interrogating the history and aesthetics of Audubon’s life and work, my paintings advocate for new, better stories for wildlife conservation practices.

School of Art | Graduate Painting
Student: Amanda Baker
A painting on a 20"x16" birch plywood panel done in acrylic paint. It is an outdoor scene with a human-looking hand covered in brownish fur, reaching toward a brown rabbit. Behind the rabbit, a light pink ghost-like rabbit form floats up toward the sky. The rabbit sits in the bushes and has a happy expression. A white puffy cloud sits behind them in the pale blue sky.
In their formal proximity to Audubon’s Common Buzzard, my paintings present a contemporary evaluation of the work. In this painting, a furry hand extends toward the rabbit, perhaps nature coming to reclaim itself. In the other, the bird and hare sit side by side, captured and dissected, equalized in their captive fate.
A painting on a 20"x16" birch plywood panel done in acrylic paint. A bird sits to the left of a rabbit which lies flat on a table-like surface. The bird and rabbit forms occupy most of the image. The bird is painted in dark, warm purple-brown, and the rabbit is white with a bright orange-yellow outline. A dashed line runs vertically down the bird's spine. Teal diagonal linear shape hovers across the animals and the slightest shadow in the bottom right corner shows that it is above these two animal objects in space.
In this painting, the bird and hare sit side by side, captured and dissected, equalized in their captive fate. A teal ruler hovers over them, a demonstration of their value as contingent upon the dimensions of their pelts.
Tags:
, , , ,
←
→