How do humans actually relate to non-human animals or to nature?
This is the subject of the title Human Animal Binary,
but also of the whole installation.
We often see nature as something subordinate to us
or as something that takes place outside of us.
But actually we are completely dependent
on the success of ecological and biological processes.
The work plays with an optical trick.
When you walk around the sculpture,
four images come together and dissolve again.
These four representations are images of
a bee, a lynx, a river trout and a kingfisher.
These are four animals that are or were native to Tyrol
and are related to habitat destruction and climate change.
What was challenging in the project was the design process.
The way the anamorphic cube works requires that the two images facing each other have exactly the same silhouette,
so that when you look at one image the other is hidden right behind it.
In this case, however, the additional requirement was that they be native animals,
that they be related to the biodiversity crisis,
and it was important to me that they be as different species as possible.
In the manufacturing process, the image fragments were cut out of hand-blown antique glass and painted.
This painting was done with so-called enamel paints.
These are colors that are fired in a kiln after the painting process.
This technique is known from classical leaded glass or church windows.
This is a very qualitative and durable technique.
Human Animal Binary is an art project in public space.
Compared to a conventional gallery, for example, the public space brings with it other issues.
These are also quite pragmatic things like dimension and weather resistance or also safety aspects.
But public space is of course also a place of social debate,
it is also a place where people come across art rather by chance.
Concrete, glass, and metal are anything but CO₂ neutral materials.
The production of Human Animal Binary
has caused approximately 1 ton of CO₂.
Per capita and year, we should emit a maximum of 2 tons of CO₂ globally.
The industrialized nations currently exceed this value many times over.
Against this background, the question arises as to whether it would
have been better not to produce Human Animal Binary in the first place.