Today in the United States, there is an onus on volunteers to pick up environmental responsibility that was once upheld by civic organizations. Free-market environmentalists assume a self-prescribed role of rogue animal guardian. Private wildcat reserves create an ecological diversity of fauna never coexistent under one biome, based on selective and desired organisms, namely that of a pre-colonial past. Here, tigers and lions roam a mowed landscape of the American South. These preserved wilderness sites reinforce ideals of private property, producing capital from both the conservation and entertainment economies.
Un-common Intimacy was shot in private wildlife reserves in the six states that allow private ownership of large predators. Jessica Segall trained to handle the wildlife in order to embed herself in the ready-made sites. During these sessions, Segall learned that the masculine theater performed in wildlife handling entertainment is not a prerequisite for confronting predators.
This video was produced with support from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Art and Cannonball / ArtCenter South Florida.
Camera by Steve Romano, sound by Iddo Aharony.
Jessica Segall (1978, US) is a multidisciplinary artist living in Brooklyn, NY. Her work is exhibited internationally, including the Havana Bienal, The National Gallery of Indonesia, The Queens Museum of Art, the Aldrich Museum, The Inside Out Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Vojvodina and The National Modern Art Gallery of Mongolia. She received grants from New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Art Matters, The Rema Hort Mann Foundation and The Pollock Krasner Foundation. Jessica attended residencies at Skowhegan, The Van Eyck Academie, The MacDowell Colony, Art OMI and The Sharpe Walentas Space Program. She is a graduate of Bard College and received her MFA in 2010 from Columbia University. Her writing has appeared in Cabinet Magazine and her work has been seen in The New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, Art in America and Mousse Magazine.
