
Despite goats’ reputation in Christian culture for their pagan and Satanic associations, I’ve always admired their hardy resourcefulness and agility.
You will appreciate those qualities if you’ve ever seen a goat calmly balancing sideways on a sheer Atlantic cliff face in high winds. I also enjoy their propensity for rude wild chaos and refusal to be totally tamed. They’re far better crack than sheep.
Although human/goat hybrids are often male in mythology – the fauns and satyrs of Greek and Roman myth – goat-woman stories exist in a number of cultures. There are the Scottish Glaistig and the Greek Goat Girl, which have similarities to the Celtic Selkies and Mermaids. These folk-tales frequently revolve around female shape shifting human/animals being coerced into relationships with humans by someone stealing and hiding their skin.
I made these pieces as self portraits, evoking my connections with the physical, uncivilised self we all possess.