dorothy philip

You Cannot Straighten a Dog’s Tail

categoryGraphic Design, Photography
year2026, work in progress
toolsAdobe Creative Suite

நாய வாலை நிமிர்த்த முடியாது, a Tamil idiom: you cannot straighten a dog’s tail. It is said of someone, or something, that will not be changed no matter how much effort goes into trying.

The zine is a reflection on my Tamil heritage and on my own stubbornness. It sits with the idea that some things are not faults waiting to be corrected, but simply the shape a thing takes.

the pages

Stray dog on asphalt, hand-lettered.
front
A pair of eyes above the handwritten line, I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from?
01
The .52 mark over a perforated field, with a dark sculptural photograph below.
02
A group photograph broken up by a repeating eye motif.
03
A dense grid of hand-pressed marks.
04
A blurred .52 cover image with Tamil lettering across the foot.
05
A temple elephant with Tamil lettering below.
06
Palm trees against a pale sky.
back