New paintings: Curl up and die 2011

Ann-Marie Tully, Curl up and die - Joe,
2011. Oil on paper, 21 x 30cm

Ann-Marie Tully, Curl up and die - Tabatha,
2011. Oil on paper, 21 x 30cm

Ann-Marie Tully, Curl up and die - Tabby,
2011. Oil on paper, 21 x 30cm

Ann-Marie Tully, Curl up and die - Peter, having been framed,
2011. Oil on paper, 31 x 36cm

Ann-Marie Tully, Curl up and die - Smilla II,
2011. Oil on paper, 21 x 30cm.

Curl up and die (series)

The idea for the Curl up and die series stems from a current body of work that investigates the temporality of animal life in relation to human/animal relationships and loss. The agency of animal beings is asserted in these works that concentrate on the particularity of individual creatures, and human perspectives. The titles of these works  ironically reference well known colloquial expressions that involve the metaphoric and metonymic subsumption of animal characteristics in communicating human experience and emotion. Although these anthropocentric colloquialisms often prove to be apt communications, such expressions tend to reduce the particularity of animal beings in a colonising humanist gesture.