NO(w)HERE, Exhibition installation, Tempe Center for the Arts, 2013
“Animals disappear: some literally, in the wake of human expansion, some metaphorically, becoming ubiquitous and fading into the urban landscape.
My suburban upbringing was filled with mediated representations of the animal: literature, television, and corporate branding. While the feeling of attachment to wildlife was authentic, the wildlife itself was artificial. Even an encounter with a living, breathing animal is bound by unseen regulation. Populations are controlled, predators are decimated, and survivors are displaced to the edge of human comfortability. Boundary lines are drawn and animals are expected to obey, an obedience whose subversion is punishable by death. The destabilization of wildlife systems due to urban sprawl is concealed under the banner of “progress”.
These realizations are the foundation for my exploration as an artist. As society continues to redefine nature, I explore alternative systems of human/animal interaction through interdisciplinary processes: Juxtaposing animal imagery with human spaces and subverting traditional ways of observing non-humans in contemporary human networks. By composing simulated encounters I enter into the dialogue of anti-confinement, animal autonomy, and the uncertain future of cohabitation.”
Coyote Yipps 
