Manimal (still), 2005


In traditional art, man, created as a reflection of God’s image and equipped with his intellect and rationality, occupied an uncontested higher status in relation to all living creatures. In a world order reflecting a hierarchy established at the time of the Renaissance and designed to hold man at its center, animals were portrayed as symbols of different qualities such as loyalty, richness, heroism, wildness or just plain beauty. The Manimal exhibitions examine what happens when the old codes of representation cease to apply: when the dominated are transformed into the dominators, the docile and loyal betray their masters and the feeble and illogical take center stage. When man becomes animal and animal becomes man. The traditional relationships are radically altered, as the previously faithful and passive creatures surrounding man become either threatening or embarrassing or conversely - redeeming and spiritual.