Spring 2013: 'jabberwocking: the drawings of karen bondarchuk' at the Kimura Gallery

Location: Kimura Gallery (Fine Arts Building, Second Floor)
Show dates: Jan. 14-Feb. 8
Reception: Wednesday, Jan. 23, 5:30-7:30 p.m. (Free parking in the Fine Arts Building parking lot beginning at 5 p.m.)

Artist's statement:
"My work has had common thematic elements of animals and language for the past several years, examining linguistic and physiological connections between animals and humans. Language also plays a central role in the human-animal divide, often serving as the singular distinguishing trait that elevates us above them. Scientific perspective on the nature and magnitude of animal consciousness is in flux, with the most recent research suggesting that animals are capable of higher order reasoning than previously understood or imagined. Novelist J.M. Coetzee, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, philosopher and bioethicist Peter Singer and animal science expert Temple Grandin have all contributed to the ongoing discussions around animal consciousness with each advocating a different but parallel rethinking of our traditional separation of 'man and beast.' From these varied perspectives, I have been inspired to explore the fraught boundary between human sentience and what we assume-guess-to be the limits of animal reasoning power, which entails communicative abilities as well. This, as well as the emotive possibilities of animals, has been a particular focus of my work to date, with language as an unreliable marker of the divide.

I would venture to say that none of this thinking-mine or anyone else's-could have happened without Darwin. In his notebook from 1830, Darwin wrote the words 'I think' above a simple line drawing of a branching tree-an early visualization of his theory of evolution. I am struck by the fact that this humble drawing and phrase came to signify some of the most important ideas in the history of humankind (not to mention being tickled by Darwin's unwitting emasculation of Descartes' "cogito ergo sum" ...He thinks, period). Darwin clearly understood the difference in human and animal intelligence as a matter of degree and not kind.

The work in this exhibition is an attempt to represent the infinitely complex relationship between animals and humans and most recently that work has centered on crows and ravens. In his book titled In the Company of Crows and Ravens, John Marzluff posits the notion that crows and humans engage in a mutualism of existence, wherein each affects the behavior of the other. He expands on this idea of a 'cultural co-evolution' between humans and crows throughout the book and it is on this premise that I am exploring these remarkable birds. The more I learn about these intelligent, adaptable, humorous, annoying, unpredictable, persistent, resourceful and devious creatures, the more I understand that they are truly beyond my ken."

For more information on the artist, visit her website at karenbondarchuk.com. For more information on this show, visit the Kimura Gallery website.