DogWalk, 2016, 12 costumes of cow, sheep, and goat leather; stuffed cow and goat feet; 2-channel video, color, sound, 3 min. 10 sec.

DogWalk is a performance video by Mella Jaarsma, first presented at the 20th Biennale of Sydney. Adopting the format of a fashion show, the work explores the boundaries between humans and animals, civilization and sensory perception. The artist presents figures dressed in garments made from cow, sheep, and goat hides walking along a runway, revealing how fashion, as a system of desire and consumption, defines the relationship between humans and the other. The title DogWalk inverts Catwalk, subverting the symbol of civilized refinement to suggest an attempt to restore the sensory awareness and primal connection that humans have lost.In this showcase, DogWalk is presented as a single-channel video, allowing the past performance to be re-experienced through its recorded image. The movement of bodies, the texture of leather, and the temporality of the runway are sensorially evoked on screen, where the absent physical presence lingers as an audiovisual trace. Through this work, Jaarsma investigates how performance can endure within digital media, suggesting that documentation is not merely a means of preservation but an extension of sensory memory itself.