Dana Sherwood: Animal Appetites and Other Encounters in Wildness
In her first museum survey Dana Sherwood (b. 1977) exhibits films, sculpture installations, oil and watercolor paintings created over the past ten years that interrogate the relationship between wild nature and domestic culture, drawing on her research into cross-species communication, the feminine experience, historic literature, and the occult.
Born on Long Island and based in New York’s Hudson Valley, Sherwood has become known for her evolving attempts to communicate with animals through her elaborate nocturnal banquets. She researches the animals’ natural diets and sets up beautiful cakes, colorful fruit-studded gelatin molds, raw meat, and confectionaries. These delectables are positioned in front of an infrared, night-vision camera, allowing her to capture video of the beasts who enjoy her buffet. Seeking to entice and better understand the animal life that lives on the periphery of human populations, Sherwood considers wild nature as both her subject and collaborator, which proves unpredictable time after time. “When you invite the chaos of nature as a collaborator, there’s no telling what’s going to happen.” ~Dana SherwoodDuring the summer of 2021 Sherwood served as the Museum’s second Artist-in-Residence and worked toward the creation of a new commission inspired by the Museum’s core story. Inspired by the history of the Lyme Art Colony, Sherwood created a three-dimensional stage set on the Museum’s grounds that replicates at scale the Artist’s Bedroom in the Florence Griswold House. Over the course of three months the artist placed her culinary creations within the structure to entice animals to interact with the interior and be captured on video. The set for The Artists’ Bedroom Bestiary is displayed in the exhibition along with the video.
A hardcover exhibition catalogue Dana Sherwood: Animal Appetites and Other Encounters in Wildness written by Curator of Exhibitions Jennifer Stettler Parsons, PhD was published May 2022. The first monograph on Dana Sherwood, this book showcases the New York artist’s pioneering experiments with cross-species communication. Her films, sculpture installations and paintings engage discussions around the environment, global food chains, the rapid growth of social media, feminism, animal studies and spirituality. With contributions by Tamar Adler, Amy Kurtz Lansing, Petra Lange-Berndt, Celeste Olalquiaga, Dana Sherwood, Li Sumpter, and Cary Wolfe.
All work by Dana Sherwood and Courtesy of the artist and Denny Dimin Gallery, New York, unless otherwise noted.
The Artists’ Bedroom Bestiary, 2021. Wood, metal, furniture, textiles, 17 x 13 x 8 ft. Photograph by Paul Mutino.
The Confectionery Lives of Artists and Other Organisms, 2021. Resin, clay, glass bell jars with snails, natural material, and cake. Photograph by Paul Mutino.
See/Sight (Equus Mongolia), 2019. Acrylic on canvas and digital video, 118 x 118 x 118 in. Digital video, 5:22 min. Photograph by Paul Mutino.
Banquets in the Dark Wildness, 2014. Video, monitors, plaster, clay, varnish, steel baking rack, books, glassware, aluminum and enamel cooking implements, and sausage casings, 36 x 49 x 60 in.; The Pavilion of the Wild and the Tame, 2015/16. Wood, clay, acrylic paint, grain, video monitors, 7:02 min. video, 70 x 72 x 56 in.; Crossing the Wild Line, 2015. Videos, monitors, books, glassware, aluminum, cooking implements, wood, varnish, resin, acrylic, and sausage casings, 70 x 64 x 22 in. Photograph by Paul Mutino.
Installation view of Dana Sherwood: Animal Appetites and Other Encounters in Wildness featuring The Artists’ Bedroom Bestiary, 2021. Wood, metal, furniture, textiles, 17 x 13 x 8 ft. Photograph by Paul Mutino.
Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, The Conservatory for Confectionery Curiosities, 2008/2019. Mixed media installation, 9 ft. 10 1/8 in. x 13 ft. 1 ½ in. x 66 15/16 in. Courtesy of the artists and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles. Photograph by Paul Mutino.
This exhibition has been made possible by the generous support of Connecticut Humanities, the Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts, The Aeroflex Foundation, Mr. Andy Baxter, Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Webster, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Moore, Wayne and Barbara Harms, Bouvier Insurance, Mr. & Mrs. Jeb Embree, as well as donors to the Museum’s Annual Fund.
