“This belongs to me. It’s my right.”

“When challenges arise in life, relationships, and business, it’s often difficult to protect what you have built. The key is to stand firm, claim, and protect what you have built at all costs until you are strong again.”

The Crowness explores how the crow is a signature or totem, analogous to human attributes both positive and negative. Crows are seen as pests, scavengers, loud and audacious. They swoop in and take, using bullying tactics to get what they want. Entitled and somewhat privileged, they occupy space with an air of authority.
Crows are misunderstood creatures. They are highly conscious, cunning and clever. Creative and self-aware, crows can evolve and survive because of their intelligence and sense of community. They are revered and feared for their duality and for this reason, they have been totemized for thousands of years. For some a symbol of wisdom, victory and rebirth, whilst for others they signify death and decay. The longer you observe them, the more you learn from them.

I started delving into the idea of ‘Crowness’ as a human trait, during the Covid-19 lockdown, when isolation and death catapulted society into extreme desperation, uncertainty and fear. This state of heightened vulnerability brought about a fight or flight response; in how it triggered a compromised humanity. This was amplified by the lack of personal agency linked to the slow stripping of personal freedom as well as basic resources. As the pandemic progressed, I could feel a growing sense of mistrust which potentiated a range of responses; from dissent and division to collaboration for survival. Covid became fertile grounds for festering greed; like crows bickering over rotting flesh. However, what I find most interesting is that we chose to adapt, learn and create ways to connect, build community, share and remain humane in these dire conditions.

The Crowness Series

Currently, in the post-COVID period, we are left licking our wounds. We are confronted with the daunting task of healing and reinventing ourselves. My work with The Crowness explores this beautiful and difficult period of reparations and rediscovery, where adversity is used to grow and adapt into bigger and better versions of ourselves, with fewer constraints and a new confidence gained.