Sculpture (Sculpture)

“We both died at the same moment” is a humorous observation of anthropomorphism, the attribution of human emotions to nature and animals. A siliquaria armata is a slitworm that loosley-coiles a shell. Growing inside a sea-bed, a siliquaria armata will grow vertically until it touches another siliquaria armata, at which point they will knot together.

Installation (Installation)

Mandy El Sayegh grew up in a medicalized environment, surrounded by anatomy, biology and psychology publications; these books inspire the figures that appear throughout her work. The work White Grounds 12 offers a bird’s eye view of a skull open from the front, belonging to a patient diagnosed with dementia who is suffering from self-inflicted wounds. White Grounds 10 depicts the body of an injured worker in China.

Sculpture (Sculpture)

This work forms part of a project that draws upon research into the use of psychoactive substances present in animal brains during the Paleolithic period. Bolstered by research by archaeologist Bethe Hagens, the artist explores the hypothesis that prehistoric shamans consumed the psychoactive parts of animal brains in order to achieve spiritual ecstasy and that the found figurines, reproduced by Marguerite Humeau, are an archival remnant of these experiences. The so-called “Venus figurines” take the form of ambiguous female forms and despite their exaggerated gendered traits, the onus is instead upon the resemblance to the ingested animal brains that led to their production.