Beast
The festival asked for a piece on the animal nature in people — the part of us that quadrobers, therians and others let out in the open. It is a subject society tends to flinch at. The work had to hold it without judgement: not a freak show, not a lecture, just an honest, neutral look at something very human.
How do you make people meet the beast instead of turning away?
The oldest animation
We built a zoetrope — the 19th-century device that turns a strip of still images into motion. Each of the five drums holds a different looped sequence of a masked figure moving on instinct: crouching, prowling, breathing with the body. As the drum spins, the photographs come alive into a single, endless animalistic gesture you can't quite stop watching.
Built to Intimidate
Aluminium and stainless steel, welded into a tangle of legs and drums that towers over you. The scale is deliberate — the topic is stigmatised, so the object is unapologetic: large, raw and beast-like, a creature you have to physically face.
The Beast in the Room
The object on site — steel legs and drums standing among the iridescent veils of the exhibition, waiting to be spun.
“I have a nature-given instinct. I see, feel, smell, hear, taste. I am. When I put on the mask, I hear my heart beat loud, feel the damp earth under my hands and feet. Breath leads me. I scrape my skin on the bark, catch a sound. Wild senses lead me. I give in.”
— ZvērāBecoming the Beast
Each loop began with a body. Performers in animal masks moved on instinct in the studio while we shot the frames one by one — the same patient, frame-by-frame logic the zoetrope would later replay.
Fig.01 / Studio
Fig.02 / Capture
Fig.03 / Instinct
Look the beast in the eye.