Dalan Parker - 2024

Artist's Statement

Humans have had a major impact on the biosphere in the history we’ve been around. We often don’t think about the ways our actions affect the other species we live with even though life has existed on Earth far longer than humans have. The animal kingdom is directly affected by humans because we hunt them. Because of this, we have to be careful about overhunting and permanently eliminating animals from the food chain. This has happened before with examples including the dodo and passenger pigeon.

My project invites the viewer to consider the effect humans can have on animal life if we over hunt. If we take the amount of time life has existed on Earth and apply it to a 24 hour day, humans have only been around for about 2 minutes. To simulate the impact of overhunting, I will shoot at a collage of some of the most hunted animals worldwide for 2 minutes with my bow. At the end of 2 minutes I will examine the collage and any animals that have been hit will be considered ‘extinct’ due to overhunting. I predict about half of them will be. The viewer is then invited to think of the repercussions of losing these animals entirely and will hopefully gain a better appreciation for the animals humans coexist with.