Ilyn Wong
The Loneliness of Species
The works in progress presented here ask questions about the economics of care within multi-species entanglements. This new body of work is a reaction to the degenerative illness and eventual death of the artist's dog, which has prompted her to contemplate the precarious relationships between human and animal, as dogs are simultanesouly an animal ubiquitously loved by humans, but mostly occupies an existence that resembles little of its “natural” habitat, thus blurring the dualistic divide between human/animal and nature/culture.
The two-channel video in the basement is tentatively titled The Loneliness of Species presents mostly footage of recordings of her dog in the last two years, as they both labored under the rubrics of “care” in an attempt to extend life, which may ultimately have been, in fact, a project of violence. The untitled sculpture in the park is a dog bed made of linen, soil, and grass.