DOG

This video artwork is a response to the migrant crisis and the death of the three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi. It takes as its starting point an artwork, as is usual with my work, and explores synergies between the artwork and events. The artwork I chose is Goya’s Dog, or El Perro or Perro Semihundido. It is one of Goya’s so-called ‘Black Paintings’. It is an intensely moving painting where the dog is given almost human like expression in the way it looks up tragically pleading for help. I usually spend a huge amount of time researching each artwork, and this one is no exception. But, whereas the research usually results in an artwork, in this case the research is the artwork.