Fly Like Gods, Kill Like Demons

Signal + Noise 2009 began with the well received program Animal Mirror. Artists in attendance were Daniel Menche, Vanessa Renwick and Geoffrey Pugen, all of whom participated in a brief Q&A facilitated by programmer Amy Lynn Kazymerchyk after the screening. In reference to conversations with Shana Moulton (not in attendance) Kazymerchyk identified an issue raised by most of the works in Animal Mirror; while we might generally adopt a derisive attitude toward the culture of back-to-nature type self-help, we are also frequently seduced by the fantasy that the natural world is the site of some agent wisdom lost to us – one that could be restored.  Renwick acknowledged the irritating distinction frequently made between humans and animals, a distinction that implies we aren’t animals and don’t belong to the natural world, when we are and we do. Renwick’s quibble fit in nicely with Pugen’s observations about the inevitable failure of our efforts to commune with nature, as that impulse is often informed by our own projections onto animals and their environs. It’s sort of like that scene in Bull Durham, Tim Robbins wonders aloud why whenever someone thinks they’ve had passed lives they were always someone famous, like Cleopatra. It seems whenever one indulges in selecting an animal avatar it’s a creature like a wolf, one heavily waited with human characteristics we’ve imposed on it. But just for the record, I’d be a shark.

credit: Sarah Young