Animism

About

ANIMISM presents work by four artists who create parallel universes - bizarre, mysterious, and at times unnerving worlds - that question the nature of our own reality. They take the familiar and turn it on its head. In particular, they share a preoccupation with the idea that animals and plants have souls, and that rivers, mountains and rocks, if not actually alive, are in some way sentient. It is not anthropomorphism. It is a way of thinking that emerges from a close connection to nature, and is thus associated with primitive societies. However, to dismiss it as a belief system borne out of sentimentality or ignorance is perhaps to miss the point that an affinity with, and intimate relationship to, our environment may actually be of value in how it teaches us to respect non-human entities, and not to treat them as mere resources