Next collaboration with Guilbert the cat

Although we have done quite a lot together this year, including the exhibition at TRACE, my companion animal and fellow researcher Guilbert the cat is unwell again and I don’t know if I can ask him do another session of photography. I have made these little mats in different colours to find out whether he will choose particular colours or not!  Either way it should be quite interesting. The idea is drawn from a conference in Turku where we went earlier in the year. One of the keynote speakers, Helena Telkänranta, talked on recent discoveries connected to the capacities of animals. One of these findings was about the seeing capabilities of cats, that they can see the cool colours and yellow but not red. This has evolved into my next photographic exploration with Guilbert. I met a number of artists working with animals at the conference and one has sent me a photo from the 1970s of Uwe Poth making a sketchbook of drawings with his cat Rudi. The process is instantly recognisable to anyone who has ever had a cat, and the idea is pure genius.

Uwe Poth and Rudi