COLLECTIONS
(un)common intimacy, Two Channel Video 7:48 min loop Color, Sound 2018
Camera: Steve Romano, Sound: Iddo Aharony
All copyrights and reproduction rights are reserved by Jessica Segall of the artist.
Video performance shot in private wildlife reserves in the six states that allow private ownership of large predators.
I trained to handle alligators and tigers in order to embed myself in the ready-made sites, a mix of conservation and entertainment economies. (un)common intimacy, is named after the both the loss of a wild commons and the unusual intimacy gained through free market environmentalism / human stewardship of wild animals. The alligator sanctuaries I filmed help hundreds of alligators. Many of these alligators are “nuisance” alligators, meaning they were removed from Florida pools. Pools built in the swamp, the native habitat of the alligator. According to the American Wildlife Federation: “American alligators were once threatened by extinction, but after being placed on the endangered species list in 1967, their population increased. This species is now classified as least concern. The main threat to these reptiles today is habitat loss caused by wetland drainage and development.” In order to prepare, I learned the art of “alligator wrestling,” performed by men as entertainment. Much of the wrestling is showmanship, as the alligators can be pacified without the use of force or aggression.
The legality of owning a tiger varies from state to state. Currently six states have no regulations while another 13 require a permit. Since the filming of this project, many of the locations I visited have closed, and the tigers moved from one captive facility to others. Zoos will not take on the tigers and their provenance has no official paperwork, and only certain bloodlines are desirable. Today, there are still more tigers in captivity in the US than in their wild, native habitat.
Jessica Segall
Bio:
Jessica Segall is an multidisciplinary artist based in New York City and Berlin. Hostile and threatened landscapes are the sites for her work. While embedded in these sites, she plays with both the risk of engaging with the environment and the vulnerability of the environment itself.
Jessica’s work is built on a foundation of research that often includes cross-disciplinary collaboration with scientists, activists and non-human beings. She exhibits her work internationally, including at COP 26, The Fries Museum, The Coreana Museum of Art, The Havana Bienal, The Queens Museum of Art, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, The National Museum of Jewish American History, The Inside Out Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, V ojvodina, The National Gallery of Indonesia, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Split, Croatia, The Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery, The Bangkok Biennial and The National Symposium for Electronic Art. Jessica is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow and received grants from The Pollock Krasner Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, The Harpo Foundation, The Virginia A Groot Foundation, The Rema Hort Mann Foundation, The FST Studioprojects Fund, The Puffin Foundation, Culture Moves Europe and Art Matters among others. She attended residencies at Van Eyck Academie, MacDowell, Skowhegan, Art Omi, The Sharpe / Walentas Space Program and The Two Trees Space Program and is an upcoming artist in residence at Caltech and at The New Mexico Museum of Art. Her work has been featured in Cabinet Magazine, e-flux Criticism, The
New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, Mousse Magazine, Art in America and Frieze. Her work is in the public collections of the Museum de Domijnen and The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.
She received her MFA from Columbia University and her BA from Bard College.
