Open Call: Emilie Gossiaux

For Emilie Gossiaux, her encounters within ableist society have left her feeling mistreated, as though expendable and without agency, similar to the ways some mistreat animals. Deeply conscious of the interspecies, collaborative bond she shares with her Seeing Eye dog named London, Gossiaux’s animal-human hybrid sculptures in True Love Will Find You in the End reflect her mixed feelings of anxiety and hope for how this parallel between anti-disability and anti-animal prejudices can be better understood and counteracted. She describes her bond with London as maternal, spousal, emotional, and practical—feelings that most people with disabilities share with their service animals and that transcend the traditional relationship between pet and owner. Made from a combination of materials including polystyrene foam, epoxy resin, and papier-mâché, her sculptures are surreal and abject, but also romantic and playful, echoing powerful images from myth and reconfiguring viewers’ own relationships to animals and to those they may consider the human other.