DOMESTIC is grounded in research on the food production industry, and focuses on relationships between humans and animals, eaters and eaten.
Stemming from a batch of found 16mm agricultural footage shot in America in the 1960’s, film stills and broken portions pierced by a 16mm projector were experimented with and hand printed, forming the basis of this visual narrative. From photographing farm work in rural NSW, Australia, to documenting manufactured food waste in London, UK; found human x-rays, scientific imagery and documentation of site specific installation accumulate, to explore the body as a ‘coop’.
This book work looks specifically at some of our closest companion species, livestock and poultry: and how they experience gene silencing, mutations and behavioural change throughout evolution, and through living in close proximity with humans. DOMESTIC poses important questions around what biological adaptations may occur in the future for these co-dependent relationships.
The book features excerpts of conversations between Katrina Stamatopoulos and Martin Johnsson, Quantitative Geneticist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Studies, and form a central component to this body of photographic work.
Found 10x8 photograph of a phagocytic ingestion of a bacillus cereus,
hand coloured with photographic dye, 2023
Diseased cow, likely caused by cestrum
c-type hand print installed in Dungog, NSW, Australia 2024