Zoomorphic
Front Cover: Jackie Needham - Mouse and Squirrel
Zoomorphic The half world between human and animal
03.12.16 - 28.01.17
Anthropomorphica, Eleanor Bartleman, Christie Brown, Adrian Higgins, Kerry Jameson, kealwork, Jackie Needham, Gladys Paulus, Zenna Tagney, Yannick Unfricht
A Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre Exhibition 2016
Christie Brown – Rabbit Girl Photo © Sylvain Deleu
Zoomorphic
The word zoomorphic derives from the Greek ζωον (zōon), meaning “animal”, and μορφη (morphē), meaning “shape” or “form”. 1: having the form of an animal 2: of, relating to, or being a deity conceived of in animal form or with animal attribute
Eleanor Bartleman - Frocks
Zoomorphic This exhibition explores the half world
or flight, to protect their young, attract a
between human and animal. The contact
mate, search for food to survive – all these
point between animal nature and human
elements still make up part of our deeper
culture. The zoomorphic transformation
psyche. Animal traits given to humans has
of humans taking on animal form has
even become part of everyday speech -
been part of folklore and religion for
pig headed, mother tigress defending her
millennia, from native American skin
young, cunning as a fox, strong as an ox,
walkers, Egyptian gods and the creatures
bull headed, bear with a sore head. Humans
of European fairy tales. These hybrids
may have created ‘civilisation’ through
explore the imagery of fantasy and magic
cultural development and knowledge -
but also the essential animal instinct
art, literature, maths, science. However
behind all human nature.
the basic animal urges lie within us all. We have developed mechanisms which make
We all possess part of the animal within, the
us the most social of animals, able to
pre-civilisation human lived as animals do
work together to create something larger
today on pure instinct – the urge for fight
than the individual. These mechanisms,
Gladys Paulus - Golden Eagle mask
photo Š Gitte Morten
love, friendship, charity, compassion,
as well as domestic animals. Throughout
co-operation are mixed with the darker
human history we have also been
traits of ambition and hate to create the
fascinated by what it might mean to be
hierarchies and political systems which
like an animal or part animal, people
humans have used to construct their
often dream of being able to fly or talk
societies.
to animals. Stories, folklore and religion from all over the world are full of these
Humans
have
long
superimposed
references.
Ancient
Egypt
pictured
their emotion onto animals in stories,
it’s gods as animal headed humanoid
literature and latterly film. Zoomorphism,
forms such as Ra, Sobek and Anubis. In
anthropomorphism and personification
ancient Greek mythology there are many
all have ancient roots in storytelling and
hybrid creatures such as centaurs and
most cultures have traditional fables with
mermaids. In European fairy tales animal
anthropomorphized animals as characters.
transformation is common especially as
People have routinely attributed human
a disguise or a punishment - beauty and
emotions and behavioral traits to wild
the beast or the frog prince. Fairytales also
often use animals as devices to educate,
while probably the most well-known for
befriend or terrify. Shakespeare gives
modern times would be the werewolf.
the character Bottom in A Mid Summer
North American indigenous traditions
Night’s Dream an ass’s head and in Hamlet,
contain shapeshifters or skinwakers.
Ophelia says the line “They say the Owl
Some cultures even have legends of their
was a baker’s daughter” – a reference to a
race being descended from animals, the
story from medieval Christian mythology
dog headed man ‘Pan Hu’ in China or the
in which a girl is transformed into an owl
legend of Asena the wolf from who the
as punishment.
Turkic people descended.
In many cultures there are legends of
As a child I visited ‘Mr Potter’s Museum of
therianthropy, the ability of humans to
Curiosities’ and was amazed by the stuffed
metamorphose into animals by means
animals posed in human tableaux. Created
of shapeshifting. It is possible that the
by Walter Potter a Victorian taxidermist,
prehistoric cave drawings found in France
after seeing an illustrated book on nursery
depict ancient beliefs of this concept
rhymes he produced what was to become
the centrepiece of his museum, a diorama
There if often an almost symbiotic
of “The Death and Burial of Cock Robin”
relationship between animals and people.
which included 98 species of British
These relationships were first developed
birds. Amongst his scenes were a rats’
through the domestication of animals for
den being raided by the local police rats,
specific purposes, cats to hunt vermin,
a village school featuring 48 little rabbits
dogs to track food, horses to carry or
busy writing on tiny slates, a guinea pigs’
plough. But our relationships with animals
cricket match and 20 kittens attended a
have become and probably always were
wedding, wearing little morning suits or
much more than this. Our love of pets
brocade dresses, with a feline vicar in white
leads us to treat and talk to them as
surplice. The museum fell out of fashion
though they were our own children. The
and closed in the 1980s but its popularity
attribution of human traits and emotions
for a hundred years is testament to our
to animals is considered to be an innate
fascination in the possibility of humans
tendency of human pyschology. But as
becoming animals and animals becoming
the primatologist Frans de Waal said “To
more human.
endow animals with human emotions
Adrian Higgins - Safe As Houses
has long been a scientific taboo. But if
transformations between animal and
we do not, we risk missing something
human which reflect the animal instinct
fundamental, about both animals and us�.
within us all.
To consider only humans are capable of compassion, love and friendship is to miss
Louise Jones Williams,
something vital in animal’s makeup.
Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre Zoomorphic Exhibitor Curator, December 2016
To recognise the animal within us, both its positive and negative implications makes it clearer to see our place in the world. These artists’ work analyse these dichotomies of animal/human, kind/ cruel, love/hate, nature/nurture. The work in this exhibition contains complex emotions, informed by myth, legend and folklore to produce fantastical works,
Anthropomorphica – Of Root and Antler
Anthropomorphica Melanie Ashton was born of the rain and
snail shells, moss, bones, feathers and
the cold, damp earth of Yorkshire. She is a
exoskeletons.
self-taught doll maker, author, illustrator and photographer, a wanderling, a
Melanie’s body of work is inspired by the
dreamer, a collector of bones, a lover
human condition, by the cycles of death
of all that is broken and disenchanted
and transformation, by worlds glimpsed
and a delighter in twisted humour and
but rarely ‘seen’, the wild woods and the
unfortunate tales.
lonely moors, sorcery and myth. It mourns the forgetting of the wild within and the
Through the compulsions of a restless soul
ever decreasing wilds of nature but yet,
Melanie’s path has been a varied one, she
there is still maintained within its delicate
has been carried from country to country
feral quality, a tentative optimism for
and blown through moor, forest and city.
wild’s return.
When she’s not in her studio you can usually find her scouring the hedgerows and woodlands foraging for tufts of hair,
Eleanor Bartleman – Book Club
Eleanor Bartleman Eleanor Bartleman has developed her
She is intrigued by animal characters
own distinctive style and imagery since
and has a love of pattern and decoration
setting up her practise over 30 years ago.
so she often lavishes her creatures with
Her figurative work is informed by myth,
costume, ruffs and pearls. For her, using
legend and fable.
an animal form to express a human persona has become an effective vehicle
Initially she developed ideas from the
of communication, both in a narrative and
medieval beast epic of Reynard the
expressive way.
Fox in which animals portray human characteristics. Her ideas developed and
The work is made from porcelain clay. It
now come from many sources - such as
is hand modelled, decorated with slips
early manuscripts, Jacobean embroidery
and stains and fired to 1260C. It is finished
and
with lustres and precious metals.
artefacts,
myths
and
legends,
literature and poetry. She likes to play around with source material and develop it into her own.
Christie Brown – Etruscan Man Photo © Sylvain Deleu
Christie Brown Christie Brown’s figurative practice is
exists for the imagination to create an
informed by an interest in our relationship
animated narrative which can include
with objects and the significance and
zoomorphic
relevance of museum collections and
characters. Her most recent work employs
archaic artefacts to contemporary art.
these
Archaeology presents a fragmented
portrait busts and figures that suggest
narrative of past lives and holds parallels
otherworldly beings and composite
with the practice of psychoanalysis where
creatures, which at the same time seem
layers are carefully stripped away to reveal
familiar. This ambiguity is key to the idea
hidden information. Her work references
that human beings are not necessarily the
these traces as well as the mythology and
centre of the universe even if they think
symbolism associated with clay.
they are.
In the uncanny realm of the mimetic figure, an idealised or perhaps disturbing representation of ourselves, the potential
references
animated
and
references,
hybrid creating
Adrian Higgins – Punch and Judy
Adrian Higgins Adrian is a painter and printmaker based
and animal. ‘The Big Bad Wolf’ and the fox
in rural Herefordshire and draws on the
‘Honest John’ who appears in the story
local environment for inspiration. This
of Pinocchio made a huge impression on
body of work has been created through
him. He began to realise that the wolf is
collecting and collaging a series of found
not ‘big’ nor ‘bad’ and a fox is neither ‘sly’
photographs, wallpaper swatches and
nor particularly ‘cunning’ - they are just
Victorian ephemera. Adrian uses digital
being ‘themselves’. In children’s stories
imaging software to refine his ideas and
we endow these characters with these
to produce high quality limited edition
unsavory attributes in an attempt to
digital prints.
help us manage the darker and more dangerous
aspects
of
the
human
All of his work is rooted in anthro-
condition. His work plays with these
pomorphism. His fascination with it
sentiments and like a good children’s
began in early childhood. Many of the
story, the work is dark but does not take
stories he heard or read were full of
itself too seriously.
characters that were a jumble of human
Kerry Jameson – Black Ram Photo © Philip Sayer , courtesy of Marsden Woo Gallery
Kerry Jameson Acts of transformation and transmutation
She sees these hessian additions as being a
are key driving forces behind Kerry
protective, strengthening layer, rather than
Jameson’s work. Taking inspiration from
a covering; armour against the modern
shamanic aspects of alchemy, and early
world. Kerry also works in porcelain,
culture such as the Lascaux cave paintings
sometimes with the addition of gold leaf.
of the Paleolithic era this series of work evokes the movement of a primal state of
Using an expressive palette of earthy reds,
consciousness into a place of realization,
ochres, metallic finishes, and including
and her strange, dream-like creatures form
dynamic works on paper, Kerry’s versatile
a powerful link between the mythological
practice immerses the viewer within an
and the everyday.
intriguing realm amidst the past and present, the hidden and the emerging, the
Kerry
instinctively
explores
the
transformative qualities of raku, and further modifies her figurative ceramic sculptures by adding mixed materials and hessian.
extraordinary and the commonplace. Kerry lives and works in Singapore.
kealwork - Wolf
Photo © Philip Volkers
kealwork Barbara and Richard Keal live and work
grasses, and more, a remnant of the
together in Lewes, East Sussex. Their
struggle to make something powerful
work seeks to keep the vitality of the
and useful from the materials of their
living plant and animal from which their
surroundings. Objects to remind us of
materials come. Recognising themselves
our place within the beautiful process of
as part of the family of all living things,
endless growth, decay and renewal.
they use animal hair and other natural materials to make objects which affirm
“We watch our children play, like little
this relationship. Using slow, hands on
gods, they take out their toys and create
making processes they let the raw material
a universe as they want it to be. We like to
speak of its origins. Marks and traces of the
play, we gather materials, arrange and
making process remain to tell the story of
combine them, we too have ideas and ideals.
the works formation.
The objects and garments we make are intended to transport and transform their
The Keal’s works are a residue of their
users, simple natural material connect us
interactions with wool, wood, feathers,
with their origins as creatures of the earth�.
Jackie Needham – The Watcher
Jackie Needham The inspiration for these creatures has
The year after her mother died, she began
its roots in Jackie’s love of reading fairy
creating a series of articulated animal
tales and fables as a child; and years
hybrids to rationalise the different ways in
afterwards discovering the emotive and
which she and her three siblings dealt with
ethereal sculptures of Nicola Hicks and the
their emotions. She also made macabre
unsettling, narrative art of Paula Rego.
wolf and crow puppets which symbolised anxieties emerging in childhood; the
She began making animal hybrids at
monsters lying wait in the shadows when
the start of her degree, large, stacking
we are children recur at times of stress in
wolf-birdwomen and hawk-headed men
adulthood. Creating articulated puppets
who stood as survivors from difficult
enabled her to adjust the positions of their
relationships, in which love, loss, anger,
limbs, altering body language, thereby
revenge and anxiety were explored.
allowing the possibility of other scenarios
Creating
and outcomes for these characters.
autobiographical
work
has
always been a very cathartic process for her and has laid many ghosts to rest.
She used a mouse, rabbit, squirrel and an
Jackie Needham – Hare
Jackie Needham cont’d ermine to highlight the sibling’s different
conflicting roles as predator and prey,
characters. Their fork and spoon hands are
betrayer and betrayed, waiting for his
posed as if in waiting for a meal, but they
chance of vengeance, or conversely,
now use them to share ‘the spoil’ - the
perhaps reconciliation.
final division of their mother’s precious and beloved mementoes. The four
Hares are such fragile, elusive creatures
were fired together in the kiln; another
with an other-wordly mythology. The
symbol of their shared loss and familial
puppet hare is a mysterious mixture of
relationships.
childlike adolescent and coquette. The textural hare is a changeling creature,
The mouse symbolises her painfully shy
of this and other worlds. He holds many
self as a child when she often felt she
secrets in his heart.
would like to change places with her pet mice so that no-one would notice her. The fox is a trickster figure in many cultures, and is depicted here in The Watcher, in
Gladys Paulus – Fantasy Mask
Gladys Paulus Originally from the Netherlands, Gladys
This notion of the wool ‘remembering’
Paulus is now based in Somerset and
provides Gladys with the means to mark
works predominantly in the medium of
and process important events in her life
hand-made felt textiles.
and links her to an ancient textile tradition which played a vital role in the history of
Echoed by the alchemy of the felt making
humankind. Wool is an honest, protective
process, her work explores patterns of
and nurturing medium, which is subject
change and transformation. Felt making
to the ravages of time as much as we are.
is a long, physical and intimate process,
She feels there is something profoundly
during which wool fibres, water and soap
humbling in investing hours of work in
are combined to transform into a fabric
a piece that may or may not survive her.
which can be shrunk into tactile forms. As
Despite the characteristic strength of felt
the wool shrinks and dries, the shape is
there is an implied fragility to the sculpted
stored in the fibres.
form. She is interested in this tension, and how far she can push the boundaries of the medium.
Zenna Tagney – Hare
Zenna Tagney Zenna Tagney is a Cornish artist working
The characters depicted in her work, often
in mixed media sculpture. Her work
human-animal hybrids part way through
incorporates
narrative,
transformation, come from or are inspired
character and nature, inspired by her
by the Cornish myths and stories told to
experiences of growing up in Cornwall
her by her parents. The wild landscapes of
and her connection to its landscapes,
Cornwall are a common context for these
culture, and mythology.
tales, and suggest a hidden other world.
themes
of
The majority of Zenna’s sculptural work uses porcelain clay, a material with a close connection to the area in which she grew up, near ‘China Clay Country’. She also incorporates found objects and vegetation into her pieces.
Yannick Unfricht
Yannick Unfricht Yannick Unfricht is a French performance
dysphonia singing, where gestures are
artist who for more than 20 years has made
hypnotic, mesmerizing and brutal. Amongst
his body a place of constant research and
his characters is Olaf Odgari, the “Red
experimentation. He learned Butoh, a form
Man�. After having lived in seclusion, Olaf is
of Japanese dance theatre under the master
re-born thanks to the vibrations of the music.
Atsushi Takenouchi. Common features of
The music slowly reveals him his Talent: he
the art form include playful and grotesque
is able to perceive the true nature and the
imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd
mysteries of humanity. His theatrical gestures,
environments, and it is traditionally per
elegant yet silent, link the poetic dandy
formed in white body makeup with slow
aesthetics from the beginning of last century
hyper-controlled motion. Yannick performs
to modern-day DJ-set performances. Yannick
in art galleries, dance-floors, forests, music
Unfricht as Olaf Odgari expresses a wide range
festivals or on the streets of the cities he
of emotions, moving from acute anguish to
visits: everything becomes a pretext for
extreme enthusiasm in a blink of an eye, and
new experiences and performances. He has
eventually discovering his mentalist’s talents.
a unique language mixing dance and
‘Zoomorphic’ A Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre Exhibition 2016. Design: Hillview Design Published by Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre. Text LGAC 2016 Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre St.David’s Road Cwmbran Torfaen NP441PD T: +44(0)1633 483321 E: info@lgac.org.uk W: www.lgac.org.uk Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre is part of the Arts Council of Wales portfolio of Revenue Funded Organisations. Registered Charity no: 1006933 Company Limited by Guarantee no: 2616241 Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre is funded by the Arts Council of Wales, Torfaen County Borough Council and Monmouthshire County Council. This publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Back Cover: Kerry Jameson - In Costume: Half Man/Half Beast Photo © Philip Sayer, courtesy of Marsden Woo Gallery