MDes Graphic Design/Illustration/Photography School of Design
Zoë Matt-Williams
Zoë is a reportage illustrator from Berlin who’s interested in how relationships between animals and humans shape urban space. Their work centers around what these relationships reveal about our relationship to each other, and where we allow softness to creep in. Zoë illustrates and writes for publications such as Polyester Magazine and the newspaper Die Tageszeitung (TAZ), and has collaborated with British Book Award winner Philippe Sands and Turner Prize winner Oscar Murillo on the publication The Mays.
Works
Pigeon Propaganda
Pigeons used to be highly respected domesticated creatures, providing us with food, fertilizer, and fast communication. Having replaced them on all three fronts, we now treat them as rats with wings.
What does this say about how we think of usefulness, and of care—towards other animals, the world around us, and each other?
Pigeon Propaganda is a three-part illustrated reportage on humans and pigeons in the city. Chapter One chronicles a trip to a historic dovecote on the outskirts of Edinburgh. In Chapter Two, I patrol the city with a volunteer group that rescues pigeons from hair extensions and string. Chapter Three follows a pigeon re-habber, who nurses 45+ birds back to health in her apartment.
Photos of the final publication by Alice Poole.
De-Stringer at Argyle Street
