Wolves in West Bell Street Car Park Underpass, Dundee
2020-2021
Series of eight drawings installed on billboards, each 152cm x 101cm
Graphite on paper
I made these site-specific drawings to prompt reflection on what happens in the physical and psychological edges of domestic space. Below are photographs of the drawings when first installed, and then again a few months later.
As the demand for puppies soars during repeated lockdowns, wolves – Europe’s archetypal predator and the focus for a continued debate over rewilding in Scotland – seemed to me an interesting animal to think with. Both like and completely unlike the dogs we keep as pets, they have lived, historically, in the forests at the edges of domestic space.
This particular underpass is also an edge space: although it is a thoroughfare for pedestrians going into town, it does not have a name or show up on Google maps. So it seemed like a good site for making drawings designed to alert passers-by to the unfamiliar in their midst; wolf drawings to offset the relentless familiarity of home.
2020-2021
Series of eight drawings installed on billboards, each 152cm x 101cm
Graphite on paper
I made these site-specific drawings to prompt reflection on what happens in the physical and psychological edges of domestic space. Below are photographs of the drawings when first installed, and then again a few months later.
As the demand for puppies soars during repeated lockdowns, wolves – Europe’s archetypal predator and the focus for a continued debate over rewilding in Scotland – seemed to me an interesting animal to think with. Both like and completely unlike the dogs we keep as pets, they have lived, historically, in the forests at the edges of domestic space.
This particular underpass is also an edge space: although it is a thoroughfare for pedestrians going into town, it does not have a name or show up on Google maps. So it seemed like a good site for making drawings designed to alert passers-by to the unfamiliar in their midst; wolf drawings to offset the relentless familiarity of home.
Installation, November 2020:
Selected drawings, photographed February 2021:
Digital prints of four drawings photographed after six months in the underpass, in May 2021:
