Kitty Blandy

As a human animal the idea of how it feels to be animal interests me. The word homologous, ‘having the same relation or structure’, is used for all four-limbed vertebrates, or tetrapods. With bilateral symmetry this fundamental shared structural biology offers a visual entry point to indistinction between species, allowing for a becoming other that fables often rely on to create meaning. For the “being homologous” series I began each image by laying down an essential form, looking something like a bean or a stage of embryological development; only then were the specific animals drawn around that shared single form. Every image, depicting an endangered or at risk species, contains the same internal form, based not on anatomical homology but on a pared back torso. The aim was to represent both inner being and somatic empathy by using this essential form to emphasize the base similarity of homologous bodies. I use the word somatic specifically as a sensationexperienced within the body of the viewer. This physical sensation also acts as a signifier for empathy, effecting an association within our bodies to recognize our animal selves–– how it feels to be animal.

Kitty Blandy is a visual artist who works with drawing and sculpture. The subject of her work centres on the body, and has as much to do with being in as looking at a body. Her study is driven principally by ontological curiosity: how being in a body feels physically and metaphysically; environmental and humanist theology; human/animal empathy, and extinction. Her work is represented in the UK and Canada and is included in many collections, notably the Primary Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.