Exhibition Installation Images
Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow
~ Aesop, The Dog and the Shadow
Using animal imagery to speak about lived experience and our own animal nature, Amanda Burk’s large-scale drawings in Stories of Contentment and Other Fables focus on our aggressive impulses, particularly feelings of restlessness and anger brought about by a deep yearning for change. Burk is interested in the struggle between the destructive potential of aggression and its connection to a personal sense of agency. Unlike the anthropomorphism of animals commonly found in literature, illustration, and storytelling, Burk’s animals do not role-play, nor do they exist as straightforward, naturalist depictions, rather they function as a metaphor embodying feelings of discontentment and viciousness. Stories of Contentment and Other Fables presents an uneasy meditation on aggression and draws out from the shadows what we know in our heart exists.
Stories of Contentment, Thunder Bay Art Gallery: January 13 – March 26, 2017.