Visiting Artist: Colleen Plumb

October 1, 2010
Dalton Recital Hall
3 p.m.

In conjunction with the conference for the Society of Photographic Education Midwest Region.

Animals Are Outside Today examines relationships between humans and animals, studying how animals are woven through the fabric of culture. Henry Beston stated regarding animals in The Outermost House in 1928: "They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth." This body of work explores underneath this net, uncovering the layers of contradictions that define our relationship with animals. We love and admire them; we are entertained and fascinated by them; we take our children to watch and learn about them. Animals are embedded within core human history—evident in our stories, rituals and symbols. At the same time, we eat, wear and cage them with seeming indifference, consuming them in countless ways. This work moves within these contradictions, always questioning if the notion of sacred will survive alongside our evolution.

Colleen Plumb received her MFA from Columbia College Chicago, where she is currently an adjunct faculty member. Her work is held in many collections and has been widely published and exhibited. Radius Books will release her first monograph, Animals Are Outside Today, next spring. She is represented by Jen Bekman Gallery in New York, and is included in Catherine Edelman Gallery's Chicago Project.

Sponsored by Kendall College of Art and Design.