The exhibition invites viewers to experience the dynamic process of becoming an animal by presenting them with different perspectives and perceptions of animals through painting, photography, sculpture, video and installation. Influenced by Stefan Sorgner’s Metahumanism and Deleuze’s Becoming-animal theory, this exhibition aims to shift audiences toward an anti-anthropocentric perspective, highlighting the equality among all living beings.
Audiences are invited to become animals through ‘viewing’ and ‘perceiving’. Traditionally, humans are viewing subjects and animals are viewed objects, embodying power in the human gaze. Masha Barks’ VR video allows humans to witness the dog’s control of human space, making humans forced viewers with no initiative; her paintings provoke the unequal relationship between humans and animals with vivid colours; Tina Ribarits’ installation juxtaposes viewing with capturing, stripping away the subjectivity of the human observer and transforming them into an animal caught in a trap. Jo Longhurst creates new perspectives on viewing with extreme close-ups, which allows the concept of the animal to transcend physical boundaries through the furry textures. Their practices challenge the binary power relationship in viewing, enabling humans to adopt an animal perspective. The artistic practices in this exhibition also blend imagination and senses, creating a fluid process of human-animal perception. Daria Ivans’ video invites the viewer to imagine the constant involution from human to parasite through different layers of superimposition; the documentations of GoatMan show Thomas Thwaites wearing prosthetic limbs and a prosthetic rumen, and living in the form of a goat, in a “between-the-worlds state”; and Joanna Wierzbicka’s three-channel videos and sculpture demonstrate how abstract perception flows between humans and animals.
Through all shared sensory experiences, humans become animals, perceiving the world from different perspectives. It shifts the traditional passive role of the viewer to an active participant, fostering a deeper engagement with the artworks. The artists’ approach to placing humans within transformative processes, rather than merely using animals as metaphors or creating chimeras, encourages empathy and a profound understanding of other species, offering audiences a metaphorical “holiday” from their human-centric existence.
Artists
Masha Barks
Daria Ivans
Jo Longhurst
Tina Ribarits
Thomas Thwaites
Joanna Wierzbicka
Curated by Hazel Yiran Liu