Grand Arts: Fat of the Land

COMMUNION: Micaela O’Herlihy
Beasts (animals that are dangerous and uncontrollable), pets (animals that are tamed and kept as companions), cattle (animals that are domesticated and often raised for meat and dairy products), and pests (animals that are harmful or annoying), all of these categories position animals in opposition to humans. Although scientific taxonomies identify humans as animals too, Western consciousness typically suppresses animal affinities. Such distrust and hostility is reflected in the linguistic link between the words ‘animal’ and ‘animosity.’

Micaela O’Herlihy has experienced this disconnect in Wisconsin where she and many of her neighbors operate farms. She comments, “The interaction between humans and animals is intense, but there is no communication. There is hunting and extermination. It is war between animals and farmers.”¹⁴ Her handmade films highlight a different linguistic pairing. The relationship between ‘animal’ and ‘animate’ indicates that animal nature is a source of vitality and magnetism. Thus, when the characters in alone in the woods til death do I wander appear dressed in the skins of raccoons and coyotes, she says she is seeking “the spirit in the furs” to form “relationships between communities of people and people with animals.”

alone in the wood till death do I wander is a four-minute film loop that presents three characters: an Old Crone, a Wolf Boy, and an Indian maiden. O’Herlihy explains, “They are the fat. They are a part of the land, not separate takers of the land.” They bridge two worlds by walking upright in a human manner while they skulk about in the snowy landscape covered in furs. In an effort to “portray them as animals, not separate entities,” O’Herlihy accentuated their beast-like qualities by slowing the film to focus on their teeth, and capturing their furtive movements by shooting at night by the light of a glaring hunter’s lamp. She explains, “It’s hard to get a clear view of animals in the wild. There are always trees in the way. It is dark. You are moving, or they are moving, or you are scared and afraid to look them in the eye. If they are carnivorous or aggressive, this fear of them is dominating your concentration thus interfering with your ability to really see them. This is why the characters are not portrayed clearly with conventional lighting and good lenses."¹⁵




From the Fat of the Land: Alchemies, Ecologies, Attractions WEALTH: Filip Noterdaeme (HoMu) POWER: Adam Zaretsky with Katherine Wright, Travis Watson, and Chase Pierson POTENTIAL: Spurse LUXURY: Fritz Haeg IMAGINATION: Lynus Young WASTE: Tavares Strachan COMMUNION: Micaela O’Herlihy
COMMUNION: Micaela O’Herlihy Beasts (animals that are dangerous and uncontrollable), pets (animals that are tamed and kept as companions), cattle (animals that are domesticated and often raised for meat and dairy products), and pests (animals that are harmful or annoying), all of these categories position animals in opposition to humans. Although scientific taxonomies identify humans as animals too, Western consciousness typically suppresses animal affinities. Such distrust and hostility is reflected in the linguistic link between the words ‘animal’ and ‘animosity.’ Micaela O’Herlihy has experienced this disconnect in Wisconsin where she and many of her neighbors operate farms. She comments, “The interaction between humans and animals is intense, but there is no communication. There is hunting and extermination. It is war between animals and farmers.”¹⁴ Her handmade films highlight a different linguistic pairing. The relationship between ‘animal’ and ‘animate’ indicates that animal nature is a source of vitality and magnetism. Thus, when the characters in alone in the woods til death do I wander appear dressed in the skins of raccoons and coyotes, she says she is seeking “the spirit in the furs” to form “relationships between communities of people and people with animals.” alone in the wood till death do I wander is a four-minute film loop that presents three characters: an Old Crone, a Wolf Boy, and an Indian maiden. O’Herlihy explains, “They are the fat. They are a part of the land, not separate takers of the land.” They bridge two worlds by walking upright in a human manner while they skulk about in the snowy landscape covered in furs. In an effort to “portray them as animals, not separate entities,” O’Herlihy accentuated their beast-like qualities by slowing the film to focus on their teeth, and capturing their furtive movements by shooting at night by the light of a glaring hunter’s lamp. She explains, “It’s hard to get a clear view of animals in the wild. There are always trees in the way. It is dark. You are moving, or they are moving, or you are scared and afraid to look them in the eye. If they are carnivorous or aggressive, this fear of them is dominating your concentration thus interfering with your ability to really see them. This is why the characters are not portrayed clearly with conventional lighting and good lenses."¹⁵	Micaela O'Herlihy "Croney Goat" image still from alone in the woods til death do I wander video loop 2007
O’Herlihy is conducting a real-life experiment to develop a closer rapport with the non-human realm by reducing dependency on high-technologies. In the summers she lives beyond the reach of the electric grid in rural Wisconsin where “seasons are so intense, that when wild asparagus, morels, and milk weed ripen, there is a big celebration.” Avoidance of sophisticated technologies also dictates her relationship to her artistic medium. O’Herlihy’s films are ‘handmade,’ meaning they are processed, printed, manipulated by hand instead of a computer or a commercial laboratory. The installation of the film at Grand Arts utilizes low-tech tools. 150 feet of film form a loop that zigzags through small squeaky reels that are attached to walls and the ceiling as it is fed through a projector and ultimately appears as a 3’ x 4’ projection on the wall. In the darkened gallery, the film evokes the mysterious world that animals inhabit and the tantalizing appeal of animal connections to sources of primal wisdom. “alone in the wood” suggests that animals and humans do not possess separate natures. They are co-inhabitants of a common world. Survival depends upon communion among all living species. Linda Weintraub Rhinebeck, NY June 2007 This essay is published on the occasion of “From the Fat of the Land: Alchemies, Ecologies, Attractions” organized by Grand Arts and curated by Stacy Switzer. ----------------------------- ¹⁴Micaela O’Herlihy, correspondence with the author, (8 May 2007). ¹⁵Ibid.
Wealth ... Power ... Potential ... Luxury ... Imagination ... Waste ... Communion