Zhao Renhui 
Blind Long-tailed Owl, Desert Variant of Little Owl from the series, As Walked on Water, 2011
Installation of vinyl print, 280cm x 194cm

The Institute of Critical Zoologists
Friday 27 April — Sunday 17 June 2012
Chapter Arts Center
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

"The Blind Long-tailed Owl (2011), ‘watches’ over us at both the beginning and end of the exhibition - This owl has evolved a sight-sheltering plumage to cope with the desert conditions it has been forced into, due to de-forestation. This bird becomes a totem; it’s visual impairment /adaptation alludes to the limitations of the human regard for animals and suggests a change of perspective and abandoning of our assumptions about reality." 

Copyright 2012, Institute of Critical Zoologists