My work is concerned primarily with the portraiture of animals. While the subjects are instantly recognisable, my treatment attempts to shift them to a magical or more fantastical realm. Paradoxically, the subversion of traditional representation – through the manipulation of colour and proportion – attributes a more human aspect as the animal gaze guides or connects with the viewer's gaze. This personification results in a playful and quirky way of looking. The referent is at once recognisable and non-existent.

I see the relationship between man and beast as a simple one: we love them, fear them or eat them – and vice versa. From early learning we use their image or likeness to develop language and cognitive skills. As children we recognise them and rarely question a representation. By using a 'hands-on', craft-inspired representation, I am questioning our acceptance of indexical imagery and promoting a more imaginative 'remembering'.

Recently Nouchka took part in the RHA Unselected in the Bad Art Gallery Dublin, and in Dungannon Arts Festival. Her publicly commissioned work is in Rabo Bank Dublin and private collections. She graduated from UCD with an MA (Hons).