Sympoetics of Squirrealism

This thesis project researches the ethology of grey squirrels and their links to human systems to speculate possible futures in hybrid human development through artistic practice. Humans living in urban spaces interact daily with nonhumans as cities spread out into the natural world and technology reshapes our existence. I began creating art and thinking with grey squirrels after an interspecies boundary was crossed when I held an injured squirrel in my hands. The intimacy of the encounter touched me and evoked a desire to document my alliance to the squirrel through artwork—thus, Squirrealism was born. Squirrealism developed into a method of art-making that channels conceptual and material connections between species to think and make, as feminist philosopher Donna Haraway says, “sympoetically.”