Seducing Spiders
Eleanor Morgan
I create videos, sculptures and drawings that explore physical and mythical entanglements between humans and animals. What are these attachments and how do they alter our perception of humans and other animals? These questions have led me to weave silk from living spiders, immerse myself in a giant green sea anemone and create a staring match with a squirrel. For my PhD research I am investigating the concept of 'enchanted materialism', a method of attachment to the world through wonder. Under the provisional title 'Seducing spiders', my project will consist of three interconnected areas: my artistic practice, historical research into spider/human attachments and the biology of spiders and spiders' silk. I will explore Donna Haraway's argument for an 'embodied objectivity', the work of theorists Elizabeth Grosz and Christine Battersby and the writers Clarice Lispector and Angela Carter.
