Muntjac (2024)

Fleeting correspondences on invasion, invitation, ill-logics and brown bodies

Muntjac is a project inspired by a series of personal encounters I have had with the ‘invasive’ muntjac deer across the woodlands of London. The muntjac, originating in China and released into the English wild via Bedfordshire's Woburn Park in the early 1900s are rare to come across. Therefore, these frequent encounters have felt like an invitation to tell stories and make-meaning. They have offered a surprising and generative vessel to think through and reckon with England’s relentless hostility towards, enclosures of and alienation of the brown body across the UK. At the heart of the work is a series of journaled correspondences conjured from this little brown deer alongside a series of offerings which hold sacred its fleeting presence and humbling revelations. The exhibition and supporting programme of correspondences with co-conspirators contribute to ongoing discourses around who is welcome to and feel joy on this island.