With roosters as the primary subject, Frankfurt-based artist Case’s latest paintings and murals deal with the human impulse to dominate. Case created a body of work for the group show “Unnatural Natural History” at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol (which we previewed recently on the blog) based on his observations of nature during his travels to North and South America.
“For every action there is motive which boils down to the demonstration of power and dominance in all beings — human and animal alike. This character trait is a natural part of life,” Case wrote about his new body of work. “Arranged rooster fights are the perfect example of this. The instinct of all beings to dominate in nature lies at the heart of these fighting games, yet without the artificial hand of man these fights would not naturally occur… It appears to be a natural human desire to destroy what we created. This demonstrates how far removed we are from other natural beings and how ‘unnatural’ we have become.”
Case creating his outdoor installation at the Royal West Academy, photo by Sandra Butterfly
Photo by Sandra Butterfly
Photo by Sandra Butterfly