THE END OF LOVE

The End of Love is a series of ceramic dog collars exploring this everyday object as an ambivalent symbol of care and control. Is the collar a sign of belonging and safety, or the end of freedom? Can we speak of “love” when one of the parties cannot express themselves freely, and are often silenced or misunderstood? We say dogs are our best friends, but are we acting like theirs? What does it mean for them to wear a yoke of subjugation as the price for love?

These collars are inspired by European medieval hunting collars and other instruments of torture such as shame masks and chastity belts. They evoke the visual language of BDSM, where collars, restraints, and spikes become charged objects of erotic power exchange. Central to BDSM culture are themes of dominance and submission, control and surrender, negotiated boundaries, and the eroticization of trust. These dynamics mirror, in complex ways, our relationship with dogs. We expect obedience, we set the rules, and we derive pleasure (emotional and sometimes physical) from their submission and devotion. But dogs themselves don’t have access to a safe word. They might not be able to express consent or have agency in the exchange. They are fully at the mercy of their guardian and their capacity to listen and understand their animal companion, as well as their readiness to respect their boundaries. 

Enshrined in ceramic and photographed like museum artifacts, these collars are the relics of the rituals we perform, where the line between love and violence is often blurred, and tenderness can be confused with domination. Some pieces bear names carved into plaques: Cuddles, Best Friend, or Good Boy. These words of intimacy contrast with the padlocks and spikes, exposing the uneasy proximity between care and control.

As an animal chaplain and ecofeminist artist, I work in the collapse of trust between humans and the more-than-human world. The End of Love situates the dog collar as both an archaeological fragment and a fetish object, a container for grief, power, and desire. If devotion demands submission, is it still love?