LONDON.- Laura Bartlett Gallery is presenting Therianthropy which brings together works by Tom Allen, Eliza Douglas, E’Wao Kagoshima, Koak, Mel Odom & Seth Pick.
Derived from the Greek meaning wild animal and human being, Therianthropy refers to the mythological ability of humans to metamorphose into other beings. Depicted through early cave paintings and European folklore, this shapeshifting phenomenon is something that has been explored by artists throughout history.
Los Angeles based painter Tom Allen, presents here three intimately sized portrait paintings of exotic flora. Angels Trumpet , 2016-17 portrays the eponymous flower native to the tropical regions of South America. This enticing pendulous flower, despite innocent appearance, contains a toxin which, when ingested induces hallucinations and euphoria. When exceeded recreationally, the drug derived from the flower causes an acute psychosis leading the individual to a schizophrenic state of species dysphoria, believing themselves to be outwardly transformed into their inner animal.
Eliza Douglas’s large scale painting Untitled , 2017 seems to capture the moment of mid-atomisation of an unknown character. Here, only hands and forearms can be seen, separated from all identifying other parts, as the person is abstractedly metamorphosed into something other.
The three small intricate collages by Japanese artist E’Wao Kagoshima represent shifts in time and memory. A Carrier Pigeon, 2012, Red Delight, 2014 and Untitled (Snake Lady), 2011 are each abundant with historical references, war, international relations, commerce, sex – each conflated through a surreal mindseye, dream-like and other-worldly in a recollection of moments remembered, reimagined and reinterpreted.
The works of Koak extend from a lineage of historical nude portraiture from classical painting to comic book cartoons. Exploring themes of gender, identity and transformation - her focus is on shape, form and a sinuous, ever flowing line that blurs her figures into their surroundings and their activities – all from a knowing and empowered female gaze.
Mel Odom is best known for his work as an illustrator, creating the cover art for many international paperback novels including Edmund White’s Nocturnes for the King of Naples . However it was his works for the radical magazines of the 1980s Blueboy, Viva and Playboy which pushed the boundaries of sexual liberation in a conservative 1980s America, that are presented here. Odom was variously commissioned to illustrate the sexual fantasies of its magazines readers – offering him the chance to distil and mediate their dreams of transformation and escaping the routines and confines of societies expectations.
Seth Pick’s Beati Possidentes (after Francescodel Cossa), 2015 translated as ‘Blessed are the possessors’ and named after the Italian Renaissance painter, sees a set of eyes painted between petals from a simple green flower stem. Otherwise featureless on a simple background, and devoid of any telling emotion, these eyes confront the viewer in a state of transformation.
