Anthrozoologic / Anabranch

Anthrozoologic:
Nerissa Mary Johns. paintings and drawings. Downstairs in main gallery (the sea).
www.nerissamary.com
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Anthrozoology is the scientific study of human-animal interaction, and the bond between the human and the animal. Nerissa Johns’ first solo exhibition Anthrozoologic runs with this theme, featuring recent drawings of mutants and medical anomalies alongside older works of wicked unearthly animal-women, with moist flesh, fur, scales and feathers.

In her work Nerissa explores the notion of the ‘other’, and humanity’s concurrent fascination and fear of difference and of our own animal nature. Her imagery engenders a duality of desire and repulsion; delicate and whimsical yet confronting for its macabre, graphic or sexualized qualities.

Anabranch:
Alison Lobbe. etchings, lino carvings and drawings, Upstairs gallery (the stars).

Lobbe says “An anabranch is part of a river that breaks off from the flow for a while and then returns to the stream. All water is endlessly moving and almost everything we know has water running through it: all coming from and returning to the same cycle, clarifying the essential processes that one cosmic splosh of momentum embodies amongst a living system.”