Our companion, our other

In “Our companion, our other” the works by the artists reveal the use of different photographic processes to explore animals, organisms and environments in relation to humans interaction with them.

At the core of the exhibition there is an interest in narrating stories of human and non- human companionship. Through their thoughtful and sensitive use of subjects and material, Zak and Segers empathetically explore what it means to be together in cohabitation with others, trying to understand our shared relationships with the species we hold close.

Drawing inspiration from Joseph Bueys’ iconic work “I Like America and America Likes Me” (1974), as well as the theorists Donna Haraway and Anna Tsing, “Our companion, our other” refers at companionship as a site of vulnerability and communication.

Each of these forms of communication involve being vulnerable, both metaphorically and physically, with another to achieve encounters that become transformative. Segers and Zak have engaged in a listening exercise to understand our changing relationship to the species we hold closely, attempting to further understand what it means to cohabit spaces presently as compared to historically.