Animal Kingdom Issue

© Henry Horenstein | Animalia Animal, vegetable, mineral. These were used to categorize the natural world by Aristotle and remained a fundmental tool to define the earth into the 17th century and beyond. Materials as well as beings were divided along these lines and then analyzed and treated according to their place in the world. It was during the 1600s that this system began to demonstrate its flaws. A group of Roman scientists known as the Lynceans went nuts trying to place fossils within the proper group, but it was impossible. Fossils looked like animals, yet they displayed the properties of minerals. And in a moment Aristotle’s system fell apart: not everything was what it appeared to be to the human eye. It needed to be magnified, disected and tested. Read more

JULIA LOHMANN Julia Lohmann is a German artist and designer based in the UK. Her work is very much centered on the ways in which we use animal materials and how we reveal or conceal the animal they once belonged to. She also explores how one can transform a part of an animal, such as bones into utilitarian objects.Read more   THE FERAL FEMME FATALE “Because of his [the leopard’s] smaller size he can conceal himself in places impossible to a tiger, his need for water is far less, and in veritable demoniac cunning and daring, coupled with the uncanny sense of self preservation and stealthy disappearance when danger threatens, he has no equal.” —Kenneth Anderson, Nine Man-Eaters and One Rogue, Chapter II The Spotted Devil of Gummalapur The leopard. Read more   ROGER BALLEN The Ballen beast, one of the fundamentals of his aesthetic, oscillates between the domestic animal, the mock animals (plastic dinosaurs and lizards), and the parasites. In an article published on Antennae magazine titled Uncanny Animals (2008), Ann Biroleau and Robert Cook concisely illustrate Roger Ballen’s practice: “Roger Ballen depict an abstracted imaginary space that is inhabited by both animals and people. Read more