Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens’s collaborative practice has considered both the prevalence of statistical thinking evident in graphs and models and an examination of interspecies care through data-gathering. As we are immersed in a collective effort to alter statistical projections with our very behaviour, Ibghy and Lemmens bring a fascinating perspective on our present circumstances. With human activity in a quieter state, birds and animals seem more present while at the same time we are measuring our citizenship through the abstraction of ascending and descending lines.

In this conversation from June 1, 2020, Ibghy and Lemmens refer to works such as Anthology of Performance Pieces for Animals (2018-ongoing), on the desire to measure nonhuman animal cognition; The Violence of Care (2019-ongoing), looking at human labour directed toward animal welfare, and the animation What Birds Talk About When They Talk (2019).

Images (above, from top): Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens, Banding Young Eastern Loggerhead Shrikes in the Carden Alvar (still), from the series The Violence of Care (2019-ongoing), video; Task-Based Piece for Two Capuchin Monkeys, Cucumbers and Grapes and Endurance Piece for Blinded and Seeing Rats, both from the series Anthology of Performance Pieces for Animals (2018-ongoing), installation. All courtesy of the artists.