"Two" in the exhibition Common Creatures, Bewildering Beasts

Recent decades have seen an increased interest in animal representation within the arts. Examples include exhibitions such as The Animal Gaze, London Metropolitan University, UK (2008), Tier-Werden/Mensch-Werden, NGBK Berlin, DE (2009), Animals in Art, Arken, DK (2020/21), Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney, The Wallace Collection, UK (2023), and The Origin of the Horse, Rønnebæksholm, DK (2024).
Where some shows have provided a broad introduction to the field itself, others have zoomed in on the representation of a particular species, while others again have focused on the ontological and ethical questions that arise from the meeting between human and non-human animals.
In Common Creatures, Bewildering Beasts, the viewer comes into close proximity with animality as we bring together a number of Danish and international works that focus on the relationship between humans and animals. Inspired by Danish artist Asger Jorn’s iconic "modification painting", The Disquieting Duckling, 1959, we explore what happens when animals no longer fit into traditional categories, but become too big or too small, or threaten to overpower us as they crawl under the doorstep or dive into the mattress.
Common Creatures, Bewildering Beasts is not about so-called "wild" animals, but about shared habitats, unstable categories and boundaries that are crossed. Therefore, the exhibition will be home to a number of "ordinary" animals: pets, domesticated farm animals, and service animals. Pests in places where they shouldn't be. Animals behaving in funny, human-like ways on social media. Invasive species and animals forced to flee because of climate change, entering our cities and homes.

The video artwork "Two" was exhibited by invitation in Common Creatures, Bewildering Beasts by curators by Rikke Hansen and Tanja Nellemann Kruse. The exhibition took place at KH7artspace in Aarhus, Denmark, June 6-28, 2025.

Video details:
The anticipated loss of a pet dog is anxious for most, but towards the end of life its effect is often enhanced. The relationship may be the only encounter the human has with another being daily. "Two" draws on a project with the Alzheimer’s Society’s ‘Memory Cafes’ in Nottingham and Lincolnshire and offers the personal and pertinent stories of the significance of end of live interspecies relationships as told firsthand. It presents an opportunity for others to witness intimacies and personal thoughts on companionship and understand the positive value inter-species relationships bring.