When I moved to Canada from the US my intention was to fit in, whatever the cost.
I'm interested in exploring the complex interplay between society and the environment through photography, video, sculpture, and performance. My latest series delves into the impact of synthetic nature on concepts of social belonging, questioning how artificial landscapes shape human identity and connection.
Nov 5, 2025
Deer friend,
I hope this letter finds you well. I’m writing to thank you for everything you’ve done for me over the past two years. I’ve enjoyed working with you and getting to know you. And I really appreciate your generous kindness and support.
From the start I felt we belonged together, whether we were out making new friends or just goofing around the house. There are so many good times we've shared that I’ll never forget.
I remember when we first met. I wasn’t expecting us to bond so quickly. Since then we’ve been pretty much joined at the hip, or neck, whatever! One thing I've come to realize is, I simply couldn’t have gotten to where I am today without you.
But it hasn't always been easy, some of the roads we've travelled, some of the challenges we've faced. I was raised in society, so I don't really know how to survive in the wild. And you come from the bush, so you don't really know how to be anything but feral. Because of this we’ve leaned too heavily on each other at times. More than once it has brought me to tears.
This is why I feel we should separate. At least for now. Don't worry, we'll get back together again soon I know—fitting in, while standing out. In the meantime I just want you to know, I love you,
-Mitch
July 1, 2025
"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself." - Maya Angelou
The deer occupies a unique space in my imagination—he’s elusive, gentle, and alert—on the edge of the forest, half-seen, half-gone. His liminality makes him a potent metaphor for otherness: a state of being present but not fully accepted, visible but not fully seen.
He exists in mythologies and ecosystems across the globe. From the white stag of Celtic lore to the sacred deer of Shinto shrines in Japan, from Indigenious spirit guides to the reindeer of the Arctic, from high art to kitsch, he’s a shared symbol. In choosing him, I choose an animal that transcends borders, continents, and cultures.
His ironic duality as both respected and hunted mirrors the experience of many who live as “other” in society—admired for their uniqueness, yet targeted or marginalized for the same reason. Society both romanticizes difference, while also fearing and exploiting it.
In becoming him, I succumb to my own human instinct, the powerful allure of belonging. Embodying him, I seek acceptance. My aim, not so much to pretend to be someone else—but to become something else, fully conscious of the fact that he allows me to embody “otherness,” without claiming any specific human identity.
The common ritual of posing for a picture becomes a paradox: am I hiding, or revealing? It gives me license to explore the porous boundary between self and other, human and animal, real and imagined, nature and culture, and invites—but resists—decoding. I want viewers to linger in this ambiguity, at least for a moment, and consider the invisible lines we draw between one another.
As a bi-coastal, Judeo-Christian, dual citizen—I know what hybridity feels like. Is an act of deception unethical when intended with ironic sincerity: to build trust and belonging in a fractured world?