Becoming Animals

Tomoko Kawai | Becoming Animals, Installation view at Kai Art Center, in Estonia, September 2021
河合智子 
©Tomoko Kawai. Becoming Animals 2020-2021. Kai Art Center
each 240*360mm
©Tomoko Kawai. Becoming Animals 2023. Forest- Folk museum
each 240*360mm

Becoming Animals, 2019-
Archival pigment prints

In this photographic work, Becoming Animals, she reflects on human-animal relations from the perspective of life and Death that she gains from the scenery of life in the photographs, including animal collections and electronic measuring devices.

The qualities of life that seem alive are captured and homogeneous with those of sparkling machines, and Death, which belongs to nature, is absent here. The photographic images’ colors, shapes, and materials are not connected to life or Death. Thus, the world created by humans is like a fuzzy dream. Kawai considers whether it would be possible to approach animals by homogenizing with them from the perspective of the absent nature inherent in these photographs.

© 2022 Tomoko Kawai. Berlin