The American artist Nancy Graves’ art is characterised by an interest in the natural sciences (zoology, paleontology, astronomy), cultural history and history. Exploring the intersection of art and science, Graves created formally defined but sensual works of art. This small graphic work that shows a walking camel is linked to large-scale projects such as the life-size camel sculptures she created using special materials, or the films she made about camels in Morocco (Goulimine, 1970; Izy Boukir, 1971). Izy Boukir was filmed in the Sahara over eighteen days, the structure of the film being determined by the movement of the animals; this cinematographic work certainly influenced Camel Walking. Camel Walking (.057 sec) was directly inspired by Eadweard Muybridge’s series of photographs Bactrian camel (1872–1885), which captured the walk of a two-humped camel in 16 phases. Graves also used another Muybridge photograph in a similar work: Camel Pacing (.024 second) depicts a camel pacing, where shorter exposure intervals (0.024 sec) were needed to create the 16 phases. While Muybridge’s aim was to study movement and to create the means to capture and present it, Graves gives us a kind of personal interpretation of the results of 19th century research, which in many ways recalls pop art through the colours used and the repetitive motifs, reminiscent of graphic reproduction techniques.
Krisztina Szipőcs