Interspecies explores the relationship between humans and animals. With humans being closer to higher primates than previously believed, various artists have created work to convey this.
Rachel Mayeri’s ‘Primate Cinema’ was impressive, composed of two films being run simultaneously – one scripted, actors in a bar fawning over a lady, and the other a non scripted film of wild apes – an audio description is played over the top which can be applied to both films. It was enjoyable to see man acting like ape and vice versa.
However, what really stimulated my thoughts was the work of Nicolas Primat. I stood watching a film of Nicolas acting much like a stereotypical monkey in an enclosure of monkeys and bonobo apes. After a few minutes it dawned upon me that the monkeys were acting more sensibly than him and in fact it was his actions rather than his physical being that was causing the audience to be intrigued. I felt almost silly as I stood there, watching a man act like a monkey. It almost seemed like I was in the cage and the monkeys were watching me.
Review by LiveWire Critic, Barney Khan (Feb ’09)
Interspecies is on at Cornerhouse until Sun 22 Mar 2009.
ADMISSION IS FREE
Video Review by LiveWire Critics, Junior Nyanga, Josh Rayworth, Jayne Rudd, Alice Toomer-McAlpine (Feb ’09)