Julia Scher Blake, 2024

Perched on a pedestal, Blake is at first glance an owl carved in black marble with its head turned to the side. In Julia Scher’s imagination however, the form of the owl is not strictly bird-like, the imposing shoulders and brow are of human and horse origins. Even the owl’s coat is a mix of feathers and hair.

The combination of human and animal characteristics are a nod towards a post-human interspecies future, as well as a reference to the large role that human imagination plays in how we interpret the behaviors of animals. Signifiers of wisdom and watchfulness, owl’s night vision and the ability to see prey make the animal a formidable hunter and predator, suggesting a subtle but wide-reaching analogy to surveillance technologies and their usages.

Each owl in the series has been given an individual name. This specific sculpture is called Blake.Blake is a gender-neutral name of British origin meaning "black" or "dark," which corresponds with the choice of black marble for this sculpture. At the same time, the gender-neutral name is in contrast to the masculine associations with black marble, which to the artist connotes the kind of dominance and permanence that made the material a popular choice in corporate and political spaces.