"God creates man and is horrified by what he sees of himself in the mirror of human flesh.”

While some people have deep connections with animals, I feel nothing towards almost all of them I encounter. They exist in the environment as much as I do, and that is just about all I have to say on it. Though I will say this: sometimes their existence is terrifying. The other day, I saw someone bring their dog into the coffee shop while they picked up their morning latte. It felt completely unnatural. Its existence in that space unwound my entire man-made presence. Looking at this animal in such a space, I felt its gaze looming over me from across the room. In some animals, there’s a blankness in their stare. A bottomless void that cuts directly through me. Are they looking at me - or rather are they looking through me? Or maybe the interjection of ‘me’ is unnecessary. I might impose myself in its sight, but what if it just does not care nor notice my ‘presence’.

After discovering a classmates farm, I asked if I was allowed to go interact with, and photograph, some of the animals there. Entering the barn where they were kept, I noticed a pale horse that almost dissolved itself amongst the background of snow. Its symbolism of being a harbinger of death has been a relevant in art and christianity, almost indefinitely. A creature that seemed so grand and magnificent, but historically unnerving. I sat there staring and interacting with it until the moment where it seemingly stared back. At this instance I took an image. For this piece I wanted to compare the relation between the human stare and the animal stare. With half of the frame being covered by a mirror film, the viewer is forced to place themselves between their own stare, the stare of others, and the stare of the pale horse.