Marcus Coates' series of 7 large scale photographs are a continuation of the performative 'becomings' at the centre of Coates' enquiry into the definition and parameters of human-ness. Here the physicality and symbolism of material combine with the portrait to form a performance document that endeavors to create a 'new' subjectivity, a metamorphosis of self driven both by the will and belief of the artist and the physical transformation of appearance.
Within this new body of works Coates attempts to challenge the notion of a defined consciousness for specific animal species; and in doing so embodies families of species like moths or birds that are seemingly entirely alien and disconnected to us. An effort to encompass Britishness is present in his performance; thereby these works become a collective portrait of native species; an identity that is not related to an abstract generalisation but to of a particular way of seeing ourselves in relationship to nature.

The photographs follow on from an extensive body of work that has seen Coates attempt to make all the vocal calls of the non perching birds of Britain (A Guide to the Non Passerines), Red Fox where he has been ambiguously photographed crouching in a field wearing a red boiler suit and British Moths, a series of 24 photo portraits of himself covered in shaving foam. Coates will be attempting to use scale as a measurement of his experience, producing human scale images to investigate our relationship to creatures whose perception of the world and sensory modalities far exceed our limited notion of reality - insects. But also in contrast, the creatures we identify so closely to - the Wild British Animals.

Notes from the artist:

Mayfly is the only insect that has two larva stages. It is a nymph under the water, then is a first winged form (known to fishermen as a Dun) which is the Subimago stage, then its final moult is into the adult fly. This portrait reflects the final moult. The weight of the dough meant that it continuously fell creating its own forms and shapes.

My form is visually determined by the material and its own formations. I and my assistant are not in control of this and do not (shape) the material. It creates its own shape. This is important because it metaphorically implies that it has its own life and will. As viewers we unconsciously interpret this by projecting forms (faces etc) onto it. This together with my subjective experience of becoming the animal as a performance creates a subjective way to relate to a species. The viewer imagines what I'm thinking in order to be the animal and the viewer's imagination projects faces/forms onto the material conjured by their mind. This being that the viewer creates is based on an experiencial empathy and the unconscious mind. This is perhaps the closest we can get to relating to another species. More so than through an objective visual representation.