Sticky Knots

A short film (00:9:52)shot in 2009 at various locations throughout Istanbul, ‘Sticky Knots’ comprises of single, lingering shots of individual or small groups of dogs coexisting with humans on the streets. As a stranger to Istanbul, the stray dogs living throughout the city fascinated Brown. These dogs appeared to be friendly, well fed and content, coexisting easily with the humans around them, completely at home on the streets. Each dog had a tag attached to it’s ear to indicate that it had been captured by the authorities, vaccinated, neutered and released back onto the street to be cared for, fed and watered by it's community. So to whom do these dogs belong? And how does this relate to a more conventional understanding of ‘companion species’? Through the film ‘Sticky Knots’, Brown explores the idea that dogs have evolved to use humans so that they are taken care of in return for a number of canine roles, such as security, hunting or companionship. The philosopher, Donna Haraway, suggests a new way of viewing this relationship: ‘Reversing the order of invention, humans didn’t invent dogs, dogs invented themselves and adopted humans as part of their reproductive strategy.’ Somehow, the arrangement in Istanbul seems to take this idea to an extreme and it is this that forms the central premise of the film.