And Man Shall Have Dominion is a signed limited edition giclée printed on Minuet Cotton Rag Paper.
Taking its title from the biblical command to “have dominion” over the creatures of the earth, this work examines the violence concealed within the idea that humanity has a God-given right to rule nature. That promise of dominion has become a story of ownership, extraction, spectacle and extinction.
The words Beasts of Tarzan stretch across the mouth as an uneasy reference. In Burroughs’ novel, Tarzan saves his family by returning to a primal state and commanding the animals around him. Yet the narrative also reflects wider forms of control: over animals, family, landscape and indigenous peoples.
The concentric rings on the skull’s forehead are based on a photograph of thousands of migratory songbirds shot for sport across Europe. Around them, endangered moths, fish, circus imagery, clowns, graffiti text and hybrid creatures collide, blurring the boundaries between beauty, entertainment and destruction.
The work asks whether our relationship with the wild has ever been innocent, or whether we value nature most when it performs, obeys, decorates or dies for us.