MIRROR SHARDS
Animal metaphors are among the oldest elements of human language. Animals are our first mirror; we use them as reflections to understand ourselves. Ideas about animals are the foundation of countless metaphors and similes.
Mirror Shards looked at animal symbols, metaphors, and similes in the building of empathy. I depicted my collaborators in (imaginary) animal costumes of their choice; shamanistic constructs that allow them to merge with other beings, in body and mind. This merging is at once an act of self-knowledge and a release from the self.
Nonetheless, my ultimate concern in Mirror Shards is for animals, not humans. A world is lost with each lost species. Mirror Shards is a plea for the protection of our breaking mirror. We lose our own reflection with each shattered animal life. Lives we’ve scarcely begun to comprehend.
