Mixed Media, 12 x 12 in.
What if wildlife entered our homes, our environment and, well, got comfortable?
How would we react?
That’s the question artists Luis Garcia-Nerey and Anke Schofield, working together as “KOLLABS,” ask.
KOLLABS’ art, represented by Diehl Gallery in a new show of KOLLABS (col’-lab-or-a-tive?) mixed media works depict wildlife in unnatural settings. These images bring fairytales and literary anthropomorphism to mind: Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood, Mr. Popper’s Penguins and Harvey.
I’m “translating” here, but my reading is that KOLLABS believes society intentionally assigns objects to certain spaces because society is programmed to believe that’s where any given object belongs. KOLLABS hopes their art succeeds in helping us “flip the traditional way we view wildlife [by] placing them [in human] environments.”
KOLLABS: NEW WORKS’ opening reception takes place August 9th, 5-8:00 pm, at the Tram Club, base of the Teton Club, next to Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village. In this Diehl satellite show, exhibition sales in part support the Grand Teton Music Festival. From August 10 – September 6, viewings are by appointment only.
In reality, displaced wildlife enters our homes, our yards, our swimming pools. We walk where wildlife walks. We drive by wildlife, stop and crowd it, run over it, photograph it (a good thing if we keep proper distance) and we’ve been putting them in zoos and places like “Seaworld.” When an animal finally rebels via escape or thrashing the heck out of a bystander or trainer, we think about changing our view.
What else do these works bring to mind? They are whimsical, and appeal to our inner desire to have wildlife as part of our lives. Do we secretly think wildlife would be happy on our sofa, gazing at chandeliers, sitting on emptied wooden champagne crates? What childhood imagination didn’t include a Shetland Pony in the living room?
These are decorative works; fantasy, whimsical images. The artists want to leave the dialogue open, and open it is.
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Tammy Christel 
