Florence Fitzgerald-Allsopp
CAF gave curator Florence Fitzgerald-Allsopp a grant for the “Interspecies Entanglements Project,” an online program of short films made by contemporary artists that explore how we might reimagine the human–animal relationship. Curated for the SLQS Gallery London, the program foregrounds how artists are working to empower nonhuman animals through their practice—producing more equal ways of knowing and understanding other species. Each film is accompanied by a newly commissioned piece of writing, responding critically and creatively to the work. Florence writes:
There is a need in the contemporary art world for nonhuman animals, and our relationships with them, to be taken more seriously. A need for further recognition that the way we story animals through the arts impacts their actual lives. So often in these contexts, animals are used as symbols and metaphors for human concerns. This project intends to uplift the work of contemporary artists who aim to resist these anthropocentric relations, and instead work care-fully to empower nonhuman animals through their ethically oriented practice. This creatively contributes to the urgent need to resist oppressive relations with nonhuman animals in the context of multispecies crisis.
The program builds upon Florence Fitzgerald-Allsopp’s PhD research, which examines the ethics of encountering nonhuman animals through contemporary art and performance practice, and explores the possibility of more affirmative relations in these contexts. By activating this research in a public context, Florence hopes to introduce different audiences to these vibrant, complex, and unexpected artistic practices, as well as forging new collaborations between artists and writers to further ignite the discourse of human-animal relations in contemporary art.
Florence Fitzgerald-Allsopp is a writer, producer, and researcher in the field of contemporary art and performance. Working closely and creatively with artists and arts organizations, she has produced a diverse range of international collaborative projects across visual art and live performance. Her writing has been commissioned by artists and galleries including SLQS (UK), Elly S. Vadseth (NO), Susan Simonini (AU), Ruth Burke & Co-Prosperity (US), Frea Buckler (UK), K-Gold Temporary Gallery (GR) & Smithson Projects (UK).
Photo of Florence Fitzgerald-Allsopp (with her rat, Bow): Nic Kane