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Black Bag

Puppy Bag

Black Bag

Bag Mouth (above) is a portion of a project for Tacoma's Tollbooth Gallery.

It will open November 18th.

Black Bag is an attempt to make charged scenarios with mechanized toy parts and plastic bags.
Technology and instinct (fear, aggression, care, the search for food) are intertwined in a relationship that is complex and exciting to me. I don't know why my T.V. works better when I hit it, but it does. Focusing my research on animal models offers a critical distance to engage with these questions. Animals are often regarded as living machines that use neurons instead of electronic components to create complex situations. To me this belief, raises as many questions about humans as it does animals.

Some of the pirated machines in Black Bag were originally intended to imitate humans, some animals, and some are undecided (Elmo?). By veiling the toys in plastic bags, I am striving for visceral responses to entirely manufactured, mechanical scenes.

Recently Spayed

I Made This for Us

If you look very carefully on the bridge, you can see the peregrine falcon I am trying to befriend.

In Tacoma, peregrine falcons have nested on the Murray Morgan Bridge and, more recently, on the cornices of many of the buildings that surround us, downtown. Our trash has become the diet of their prey (pigeons), and the falcons themselves have integrated seamlessly into our built environment, claiming it their own; concealing themselves, hunting, eating, breeding.The falcons circle us, but are not our pets. The falcons circle us, but I am not sure if they are wild or not. Are they pointing towards new ways for us to activate our own environment? Does their success justify our departure from the natural world? Do the tactics and devices of falconry offer us any solace or direction? In these images, I am attempting to lure a falcon closer by making exquisite (to me) falconry gear.

Review in City Arts Tacoma, The Curator's Eye

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Overkill

from the press release for icebox contemporary:

Sport hunting research has made significant strides in attracting deer using sounds and smells related to the breeding process. Working as powerful motivators, these lures offer hunter the opportunity to easily communicate with deer on their own terms, however false that communication may be.

Overkill, an installation by Eakins, is an environment designed to entice whitetail deer to come into the gallery. She is hunting for viewers. Her prey is deer. This work hopes to engage wild animals in genuine (if not strictly visual) ways. She is curious if a wild animal could have a shared aesthetic experience with humans; she is attempting to meet them halfway using known lures to get them through the door. If the gallery smells like deer, it must be deer, right? Like children leaving milk and cookies for Santa, Eakins is interested in the longshot. Her hope is that the crowd (deer and people, maybe) will find what they are looking for--perhaps a willing mate, an appreciation of the objects, sounds, and smells, or maybe just a quiet place to graze.

Shark Sketch

Scenes from Mutton Busting