BIOPHILIA IV: ANIMALIA.
Curated by Maggio Art Consultancy
We are animal. Since the very birth of art itself, animals have been our greatest muse. From primitive rock paintings to the Nazca Lines in Peru, the Great Sphinx of Giza, the Chinese dragon, or the legendary rainbow serpent of indigenous Australia. Animals are omnipresent in art in every culture, and every era of human history. We give them archetypal symbolism through religion, mythology, folklore and tradition. In art we can mutate them into mythical creatures. Real or imagined, we project our own human characteristics onto them. We could all readily name an animal that we associate with loyalty, obedience, purity, wit, strength, power, avarice, laziness, virility, innocence, masculinity, femininity.
Throughout human civilisation, animals have played a fundamental role in our evolution from hunter-gatherers to agrarian societies and into the modern age. We use them for food, clothing, medicine, transport, labour, protection, entertainment and companionship. Our very existence is intertwined with the animal world around us, yet as animals ourselves, we tend to see ourselves apart from the kingdom to which we belong. ‘BIOPHILIA IV: ANIMALIA’ examines this human-animal dynamic and our own place within the animal kingdom. Each piece has been selected to for its intrigue, beauty, humour and playfulness – helping us to reconnect with the other animals with whom we share our planet.
KI Europe, New Fetter Place, London
Exhibition: 29 March – 7 September 2018