Nature of Imitation

Yola Monakhov Stockton, Elisabeth Biondi

By looking closely at living birds in the field through the materiality of colour film and studio props, 'The nature of imitation' explores the connection between seeing, knowing, and wanting.In detailed, hyper-real photographs that recall the decorative drawings of natural history, the work evokes the delicate experience of holding a bird against traditions of landscape representation in Renaissance frescoes and tapestries, Modernist painting and sculpture, and the early history of photography. Through collaborations with scientists,ecologists, and naturalists on the Massachusetts coast, at universities and and research centres across the Northeast of the United States and in Costa Rica, Yola Monakhov Stockton gained access to wild birds captured for banding before their release, and those captive in labs. Alongside photographs taken in orchards, gardens, and on wooded paths, the...