Animal Land is a visual metaphor for wildlife in the Anthropocene era, an unfolding narrative that wavers between displacement, reintroduction, and loss. Collaborators Lauren Strohacker and Kendra Sollars reimagine traditional wildlife encounters in a contemporary format - through technology in an urban space with human inhabitants. For ArtPrize 10, Strohacker and Sollars partnered with the Blandford Nature Center, a local environmental education organization, to film eight ambassador owls. The large-scale video projection illuminates the NE facade of the GRAM with footage of these regional owls. Both real and imaginary interactions with animals influence human perceptions of cohabitation vs. conflict, a dichotomy that ultimately determines the fate of native species in the wake of human expansion. Strohacker and Sollars are responding to the current and rapid loss of biodiversity and investigating a future where genuine interactions between humans and non-human animals may not exist.

About Strohacker/Sollars

Lauren Strohacker and Kendra Sollars started Animal Land in 2013. Strohacker is an eco-political artist whose new genre public art emphasizes the non-human in an increasingly human-centric world. Sollars draws on her experience as a collegiate/professional synchronized swimmer, exploring narrative through video, photography, performance, and installation.