humanimal stems from the idealization of a world more connected in its elements between nature and humans. This idea- reviews the misaligned separation between us and the world and proposes a transition to a new way of being. The images of the series are thus experiences of new human-nature-animals, adapted bodies in transition.
However, the proposed adaptation does not encapsulate an ecologically or humanly achievable proposal but rather a visual experience about possibilities that can be made real through image. The series is not a statement of purpose – rather it is poetic and utopian – and takes advantage of the milieu in which we dominate and operate: artistic creation. Accordingly, the reflection not only originates from, but is also about making photography.
Anchored in our practice of observing in natura, with special attention to the material qualities of the elements, we explore the formal and material possibilities of leaves, sponges, shells, to enhance their relations with humans, beyond them being just an object.
The bodies we use are our own, exposing us to the experience – of doing and looking. The performativity of these bodies transforming into different landscapes implies what is clearly visible in the images, i.e. that there are several physical shifts – of geography, biome and season of the year – but that our shift is also another, that of repositioning ourselves in a mobile and open-air studio.
In the gardens three structures include eight empowering photographs. Each a visual statement, based on the unusual connection between the staged elements (human-not human-landscape), underlining a reflection on visual relations created between the human body and the natural body, as a single body – albeit ideologically fictional. Thus, like a map is not a territory but only a representation of it, the visual approximations occur within the two-dimensional field, not living up to lateral viewing, or realistic logic. The visible fragility of these fabricated images also underlines the uncertain nature of our future.
Ci.CLO Bienal de Fotografia do Porto’19
Adaptation and Transition. Curated by Virgílio Ferreira.
humanimal is a site specific piece for the exterior space of the Porto Palácio de Cristal Gardens. From the 16th May until the 2nd July 2019.
Installation with 3 elements (3 wooden structures, 13 coloured acrylic sheets, translucent and opaque, of multiple dimensions, 8 photographs 60 x 90cm each).