ANIMUS UNKNOWN
LATIN:
the mind, in a great variety of meanings: the rational soul in man, intellect, consciousness, intention, spirit, passion, pride, vehemence, wrath,…the breath, life, soul.
I am drawn to museum dioramas because they embody my personal confusion with human nature. I see within these constructed environments the human conflict of being both a part of nature, and apart from nature. I believe this conflict; a lack of understanding of where we fit into nature (and thus, the world) is at the heart of much of our confusion, conflicts and obsession with “otherness”.
It is strange the way we have decided to present nature back to ourselves. The details and curation of these environments attempt to imply “real” and to create intimacy. The elements of glass, reflections and artificial lights impose distance, “unreality” and otherness.
In Animus, the theater of dioramas suggest an echo to the way we, as societies and individuals, distance ourselves from one another. Like the dioramas we are erecting walls around ourselves, real and imagined.
