Pseudomorphs and Fighting Fish
by Sam Kaufman and Holly Birtles

These two bodies of work examine instability conceptually, materially and digitally to illuminate ecological concerns and a lack of responsibility over them by design.

Pseudomorphs (2026) by Kaufman, is a film about cephalopods, doubling bodies, institutional friction, hypnosis and disappearance. It is staged across three locations: a marine biology laboratory studying cephalopod cognition and skin camouflage; a beach home to giant ammonite fossils; and the mesopelagic zone of the sea.

The film takes the pseudomorph as its starting point – a decoy ink body created by cuttlefish, squid and octopuses – to think through disparate instances where the body’s boundary against the world becomes unstable and altered. It is narrated through multiple voices: interview fragments, email correspondence and a bookending exercise to facilitate out-of-body experiences.

In Fighting Fish, Birtles reflects on her work inspired by the Thames River London and Estuary in Kent, Essex and Suffolk, where performers and artists contemplate their choreographed roles as ‘Thames Monsters.’ In Chennai, during a darkroom residency hosted by Chennai Photo Biennale and Photoworks, Birtles responds to the Adyar and Cooum rivers, identifying parallels linked to sentimentality, dedication, care, and destruction. The paradox lies in the personal reverence for these sacred sources, juxtaposed with the toxicity and damage caused by anthropocentric activities and neglect.

The project Fighting Fish embodies monstrosity, intertwining beauty and magnificence with the grotesque, haze, mud, waste, life, and death. The concept of ‘fight’ is explored through performative and directed body language during constructed performances. The physicality of these gestures conveys an ecological struggle, a lack of oxygen and a growing frustration with governmental inefficiencies related to new infrastructure. Birtles merges these staged photoshoots with site-specific documentation, images of living species found in the selected rivers, later combining experimental darkroom processes with Midjourney to merge, manipulate, multiply, and reimagine new life forms.