I WILL PET YOU, DARLING
Solo show at the BWA Zielona Góra, Poland
curated by: Elżbieta Nieroba
ELŻBIETA NIEROBA
Are we looking at a sleeping animal, or perhaps at its dead body? What register of emotions does each of these situations evoke in us? In her latest project, Nati Krawtz explores the problem of the disturbing tension between what we look at and what we see. And she asks uncomfortable questions: Why do we have trouble showing emotions after the passing of non-human animals? How do social norms construct our perception of their death? Where is the boundary between life and death? Does the death of the body mean a loss of agency? How can we show respect to a dead body and its remains?
I Will Pet to You, Darling is a record of the artist’s keen observation of sleeping animals whose intimacy is put on display at the zoo, as well as her touchnig encounters with dying non-human animals or their decomposing bodies.
The impulse to start searching for rituals celebrating the passing of non-human animals was the tragic death of the artist's cat, Nora. The unexpected event left behind a void and overwhelming feelings. It was also the moment of Krawtz's decision to return to painting – only this medium seemed worthy of telling about this death.
A death that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. The composition of the self-portrait The Dormition of Nora draws on the motif of pieta and shows the artist mourning the loss of her companion—a cat Nora. A work with such an emotional burden should not be put on display; it should be communed with in a place of sadness, an intimate place. Reaching once again for the language of sacral art,
the artist transforms the gallery space into something like a castrum doloris, an altar built for funeral and mourning ceremonies. The monumental self-portrait dominates the entire space. Using the tools of art and Christian symbolism, the artist sanctifies Nora's passing, thereby opposing the narrative of invalidating the death of non-human animals and openly admitting that these are painful moments for her that deserve reflection and time to experience mourning. In the dominant discourse of the Global North, only those who are in our field of vision, members of our community, are worthy of mourning. According to Judith Butler, mourning is an attribute of a life that
is valuable and worth mourning, the loss of which has meaning. Without mourning, there is no life, yes, there is something alive, but it is not the same as a meaningful life. This way of framing life means that it is not equally valued and the loss of some not only does not evoke feelings of sadness and regret in us, but does not deserve our attention at all (Butler 2016, 2020).
The opposition to such treatment of non-humans is also present in the series of video works titled Intercorses. It is a moving record of the artist's intimate encounters with dying non-human animals or their decaying bodies. Unnoticed by outside observers, they die on the roadsides. Their deformed remains arouse revulsion and disgust.
But even if disgust repels us, it simultaneously imposes itself on us and attracts our attention (Miller 1997: X). Establishing this unwanted contact is precisely the opportunity to take a closer look, to stop, to meet defenseless bodies exposed to rot and decay. The artist restores their subjectivity, lulls them to sleep. Through the act
of persistent presence, looking, experiencing and certifying, she bears witness to their suffering and death. The fact that pain does not inhabit our body does not mean that
it has nothing to do with us. According to Sara Ahmed, the ethics of responding to pain means being open to the influence of that which we cannot know or feel. Pain
is revealed only in the relationship with another who witnesses it and validates it (Ahmed 2014: 29-31). Sometimes all we can do is simply be. Physical closeness to
a departing animal or what is left of it triggers a whole range of emotions, which Krawtz allows to resonate. Sorrow, anger, but also peace and hope that they passed away quickly and without suffering—beings that are not part of our community, nameless, invisible. Being only a renewable resource of cheap nature (Moore 2021).
Photos: Karolina Spiak
Animals occupy a very ambivalent position in Western-centric culture—from companion animals to nameless forest dwellers to industrial meat production. Nati Krawtz forces us to ask why we look at animals the way we do and what consequences this has on our relationship to nature and the actions we take. The current narratives of the Global North have led us to a point where Earth has ceased to be a friendly place to live, not only for humans. This seemingly eternal discourse about our exceptionalism grew out of the Enlightenment—the idea of creating
a perfectly rational society with the help of science and technology—and within the neoliberal approach to the market, it has taken on an unprecedented significance in shaping our relationship with nature, which Naomi Klein calls the state of war (Klein 2020: 28). Following the thought of posthumanist feminists, seeking inspiration in the epistemology and ontology of new animism, Nati Krawtz breaks the dominant discourse. She creates an intimate language of art, through which she abandons familiar patterns and opens up to new relationships in which man is no longer the measure of all things, does not rule over nature; a language of art that is a response to the current crisis of imagination—revealing to us the wealth of other ways of perceiving and imagining reality, in which non-human animals have value in themselves, regardless of the possibility of their instrumental use by man. The direction of the artistic peregrinations is determined by the views of the authors, who advocate for a responsible establishment of relationships with the world and its non-human inhabitants. Donna Haraway, Rosi Braidotti, Jane Bennett and Karen Barad, despite the differences that divide them, emphasize the need for a radical change in the current narrative and the search for a story about the world to which multi-species players will be invited and their agency will be recognized, while cultural hierarchies
in our view of non-human animals and nature will be rejected. Krawtz's gesture challenges our anthropocentric perspective. It confronts us with what we try not to see – that another way of inhabiting the world is possible, that we can open ourselves to new ways of describing reality—maybe then we will feel not only more sadness, but also joy in being part of this amazing world.
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