My name is Karolina Sobecka and my installation ' Wildlife' is going to be presented as part of the Decode exhibition at the V& A in London.
So the tiger is going to be roaming the city Friday, Saturday and Sunday after dark. We' re going to be projecting the tiger on a three mile route around the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. We' re going to start at the V& A and go round the neighbourhood. Hopefully a lot of people will encounter it and experience it. I think that the piece really exists in people' s imagination as much as the experiences that they have in the city.
The projection is out of a car onto the buildings as the car drives by them. The projection is of a tiger. It' s a running tiger and keeps pace with the car, so it' s kind of the alter ego of the driver. The tiger moves as fast as the car goes, so when the car goes really fast, the tiger will gallop and keep pace, but when the car slows down the tiger starts trotting and then starts walking and when the car stops, the tiger will stop and look at the driver expectantly - when are we going again?
One of things I' m interested in is arts in out of gallery context. So pre-understood of art. Something that people can encounter in their daily lives as they' re walking down the street on their way from work. I think it' s a very momentary, ephemeral kind of experience that changes how they see the world around them and changes how they see the city and the space and how they relate to it.
This teaches us a lot about our relationship to nature and how we understand it and what power it has over us. These ideas are very ancient and deeply rooted. These images are so powerful and have a hold over us that we don' t realise. I think our philosophy is constructed around these concepts that don' t necessarily hold true in reality any more.
The best reaction that I ever got was in an abandoned part of Los Angeles where a lot of homeless people thought that this was the experience of their life. It was really amazing. Because of the light pollution - all the ambient light that' s on bigger streets and in bigger cities competes with the tiger and the tiger becomes part of the city noise and the city imagery.
It' s really nice to see people' s reaction because people become little kids all of a sudden and go, ' Oh! Look at that!' which is a very intuitive and natural reaction, but it' s really nice to see. It really nice to see that consciousness to their surroundings - people are all of a sudden are really aware and look at things afresh and anew.
