“2016 seems to have shaped up as a year of geopolitical anxiety. Locally and globally events have been occurring that are unhappy, unanticipated, inexplicable or unwanted. The politics of a double dissolution, Brexit, Trumpism, ISIS- the list goes on.

Initially in response to the increasingly anxious events I tried to disengage and stop paying attention- to *unsubscribe* and instead engage with human interest narratives, word plays and even kitten videos.

Instead, after the kitten videos finished I found myself watching animal fights and politicians’  shenanigans. So I decided to metaphorically pick the scab, and make a work about the ‘anxious moment’.

HOWLING AT THE MOON is this work. In this lo-fi pasteup, using images from the internet and sourced photos, the (human) hands of a clock, constructions sites, politicians and traffic jams are circumscribed by police, armies and shamanic raven feathers. This half moon of anxiety is flanked by a chained wolf and a caged dingo, howling from the outside to that within.”

Penelope Cain
Artist Statement, 2016