Bloodlines

Following a journey through the paintings of George Stubbs, artist Amie Siegel’s Bloodlines examines class, labour, and the interplay between private and public spheres to reveal connections between art, people, and property, calling attention to inherited wealth, ownership, and the lasting legacies of British societal structures.

In Bloodlines, American artist Amie Siegel delves into themes of class, labour, and the interplay between private and public spheres. The film traces the journey of 18th century paintings by George Stubbs’s (1724 – 1806) from aristocratic estates across England and Scotland to a public museum exhibition, and their subsequent return. Siegel subtly weaves connections between her subjects and the paintings: people, property, animals, and objects move between reality and representation, reflecting the entangled lineages of human, equine, and artistic bloodlines.

Bloodlines captures the damp beauty of British pastures and the faded grandeur of country estates, where threadbare curtains, jacquard damasks and colonial figurines speak to inherited opulence. Estate dogs – terriers, spaniels, labradors, hounds – become living symbols of refinement and inbreeding, mirrored in the taxidermy and objects that populate these homes.

Refusing narration, the film’s intimate camerawork – by Siegel’s longtime collaborator cinematographer Christine A. Maier – of poetic tracking shots and layered editing reveal hidden networks of meaning. Bloodlines is both a meditation on cultural heritage and a critique of the enduring structures of ownership and privilege that shape British society.

– Eva Langerak

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