We design our homes, our tools, our cities and our food – and we also design the animals we like to share our houses with. Elegant, daft, smart, huge, tiny, childlike, passive or aggressive, there is a pet bred for every requirement – even a breed of cat called a Ragdoll designed to go limp and floppy when you pick them up.
For her graduation project in 2014, the young Dutch designer Michelle Bours took a critical look at the odd propensity human beings have for keeping pets. “While we love our dogs and believe there is a mutual understanding between us and our four-legged friends, we also control their actions, demanding obedience, and even manipulate their appearance through breeding programmes”, she says. Bours created a photo series to reflect this rather dubious relationship we share with our pets called Overwhelming Love, stating: “With these photographs I want to confront people with the awkward position in which we place our pets.” Cute and disturbing in one. I (sl)
Benjamin, from the “Overwhelming Love” series by Michelle Bours. (Image courtesy Michelle Bours)
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