It began simply enough. The child and I were wandering about in the park. It has quite a few outdoor sculptures. We had a plastic tiger mask from a Shrove Tuesday celebration. Soon, any lifesize figurative sculptures were wearing the mask and being photographed. The pictures look as though they have digitized tiger masks "pasted" upon them, when the various sculptures are wearing an actual mask. (Which is one of the reasons the mask intrigues me—it is so artificial!) The child and I were getting some great looks during this phase of what has become a collaborative art project: TRAP (Tiger Reclamation & Appropriation Project).
Inspirations were, in no particular order: the tiger mask, the child's new worry about crocodiles getting us, the concept of crocodiles as "monsters," my own thoughts on what constitutes art, the short stories of Karen Russell, recycling, the Surrealists, the Dadaists, a certain playfulness, the way the child sees the world different than I, the Jim Campbell exhibit Quantizing Effects: The Liminal Art of Jim Campbell at the Museum of Glass, image consumption in a visually-overwrought culture, my own mortality, and an attempt to break writer's block.
The second phase involved the child and I finding everything we could in our home that involves tiger imagery. More photography ensued.
Neither the child nor I knows where this is heading. We will just have to wait and see...
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