COCKS AND HENS

This series of large-scale chicken portraits explores the slippage between image and language. Each bird is paired with a single word—cock, chick, fowl, dame—terms that carry both literal meaning and layered cultural charge. These brief textual interventions expose the tension between denotation and connotation, between what we see and what we assume. Presented in the style of formal portraiture, the chickens are isolated against black backgrounds and framed with dignity. They become both subject and symbol—vessels for projection, stereotype, and social code. Cocks and Hens interrogates the ways language shapes perception, inviting viewers to confront not just the image, but the narratives embedded in the words we use to describe it.