Gatekeepers is a video work which depicts a scene from Spanish traditional shepherding.

 

In this short scene a 'conversation' between sheep and their lambs, who are kept separated, is recorded as they call each other just before they are put together for feeding. The moment captures the cries of the lambs in crescendo, and the baas responses of their mothers, which precedes the moment of calmness once the babies start to feed.

 

This video speaks of mothering, traditional rural farming and language and communication in non-human species. It also addresses the presence of the human as 'gatekeeper', both of the landscape and the animals, capable of opening and closing gates, modifying the land and making decisions over the lives of other species.