The circus of life
Sarah Harvey
31 Aug - 13 Oct 2013
24:7 WIndow Space
31 August – 13 October 2013
24:7 Window Space
The circus is a realm of imagination, delight, comedy, and wondrous happenings which for most of us is beyond the everyday. Sarah Harvey explores this world by enlarging the cage of the humble budgie to observe our relationship with domestic animals and how the environments we construct for them cross into the magical, fanciful world of the circus.
“One morning, while happily rummaging through the remains of a garage sale, I stumbled on a book of American circus lithographs from 1880s -1950s. The book contained pages and pages of amazing prints, but the thing that caught my attention was the images of performing animals. These were not just any animals, but your average household pets - cats, dogs, birds, etc. It became apparent that there is an interesting correlation between the training of budgies to perform tricks and the circus acts. Budgie toys - swings, ladders and bars are like miniature apparatus which are surprisingly similar to the circus performers’ own tools. The budgie becomes the performer, their cage a miniature stage and we become the spectator.” Sarah Harvey