Australasian Animal Studies Association

claude-jones_hare-brain_92x143-5cm

Hare-Brain, 2016, mixed media on paper, 92 x 143.5 cm

ARTIST STATEMENT

My art is motivated by a strong conviction in the need to re-assess our relationship with other animals, to consider their sentience and to approach more ethical ways of co-existing with them. To this end, my work focuses on the creation of chimeric and anthropomorphized sculptures and mixed media paintings that examine our complex and often contradictory relationships with other animals.

Our human-centric perspective of the animal world positions rabbits, for example, as both cuddly companion animals but also as meat and fur “products”. We support an industry that raises millions of pets that are accepted members of families yet trap, cage, torture and kill billions of animals annually for food. My work seeks to expose such obvious contradictions in the face of widespread, culturally ingrained acceptance of this schism.

While the subject might evoke disturbing images, Jones employs soft colours and decorative elements that belie the sinister narrative content of the work – in the same way that the sordid underbelly of ‘legitimate’ mistreatment and exploitation of animals is repressed and sugarcoated.

THE ARTIST

Claude Jones has been a finalist in numerous art awards, winning the “Its Liquid” International Art Prize, in 2012 and the Moreton Bay Art Prize in 2011. She has undertaken 6 international artist residency programs, has received several grants and scholarships and has exhibited widely. Her works are represented in many public and private collections.

The artist currently divides her time between Sydney, where she teaches printmaking at The National Art School, and her studio in Munich where she lives with her husband and “Laksa” – her Australian cat.

Claude Jones is represented by Artereal gallery, Sydney.