Against Anthropopressure: On the Presence of Animals in the Art of Iwona TM
Agnieszka Maria Wasieczko

A deeply significant motif in the work of Iwona Teodorczuk-Możdżyńska, alias Iwona TM, is the coexistence of humans and animals. Intrigued by the attempt to imagine the states experienced by representatives of other species, the artist uses her works as a "gate enabling a transition into the space of their perception." Therefore, she is preoccupied with the theme of animal exploitation and, more broadly, anthropopressure.

 

"I feel a rebellion within me against human cruelty toward animals, and I am deeply affected by its infliction," she confessed. "Sometimes killing is necessary for survival, but systemic, completely unjustified cruelty is something I refuse to accept."

The artist addressed this motif in two works from 2013, which refer to her memories. Once, she saw a photograph showing a muzzled dog tied to a tree. She does not know whether it was still alive or already decomposing, but the story of an animal condemned to death was so terrifying that, deeply moved, she painted a picture titled [the experiences of a dead dog in a black muzzle]. It was created on a red background, but this color—symbolizing the Passion, and particularly close to the artist—seems closer to brown here. The black seeping out from under the red, which emphasizes a mood of mourning, brings out the drawing of a branch that, much like the dog's body, has been drained of color. They were daubed merely as traces, records in the artist's memory.

 

The second painting, titled [what a dead seal full of plastic trash experiences], also speaks of cruelty inflicted on animals, albeit less intentional. Referencing Joseph Beuys's famous performance How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, the artist proposed a reversal of the situation. She used her work as an "attempt to cross into another reality" and to "empathize" with the dead animal. Iwona recalled a photograph of a seal washed up on a dune in Hel, which had died there due to marine pollution. Therefore, inside the animal's body, she painted a "garbage dump" left by humans—waste dumped into seas and oceans, such as plastic objects, bottles, or jars that poison nature. The body of the seal, rendered in shades of pink associated with vital force, was spread across an intensely red background. Referring to the pointlessness of the animal's death, it carries a symbolic meaning, as does its posing, which evokes the Crucifixion of Christ known from Passion painting scenes. Paint drips, resembling trickles of blood, draw further attention to the seal's suffering.

 

The Scale of Environmental Destruction

Environmental organizations, along with the UN and the EU, have for years been drawing attention to the pollution of seas and oceans. According to the WWF's Living Blue Planet Report (2015), over 8 million tons of plastic waste enter marine bodies every year. They threaten the physical existence of a million birds and one hundred thousand marine mammals, while also deteriorating human health.

In 2004, the independent Algalita institute published research findings in the USA showing that the content of plastic and synthetic waste in the seas has been systematically displacing the presence of plankton for years. At the beginning of this century, the Pacific already contained over 6 times more plastic than living organisms, and 90 percent of fulmars—birds found dead on North Sea coasts in recent years—had massive amounts of artificial waste in their bodies: fragments of plastic bottles and colorful caps, yogurt and chip packaging, beverage cans, parts of pens and lighters, etc.

If companies were held responsible for waste, they would not dispose of it this way. If we produce plastic, we must ensure its recycling and disposal. A highly apt commentary is a 2019 film that Iwona TM shot on her phone by the sea in Ustka: among the piles of trash on the beach, she even found a dark green, PRL-era (communist-era) bottle of "Ludwik" dishwashing liquid!

 

Art, Social Relations, and "Multi-Plastic Art"

The artist emphasizes that the fate of animals is only one field of her reflection, as she is interested in all minorities, weaker, and oppressed groups that experience cruelty. "I have a need to fix the world, to change it for the better," she confessed. This deeply rooted need, instilled since childhood, is her driving force, which also characterizes an artist-shaman important to Iwona, Paweł Althamer. Seeking impulses in the present, Iwona responds to it. As she says, she creates "multi-plastic art" (wieloplastyka), which is a multiplicity of different forms that evoke certain imaginations, actions, and reception in our minds. Alongside painting, she also practices performance art, and treats paintings as objects—artifacts that enter into relationships with the viewer. She writes their titles in square brackets […] to show that they are merely a suggestion for reading her works.

Fredric Jameson's text Postmodernism and Consumer Society had a powerful influence on her, stating that the universal sin of modernity is escaping from what is happening in the present into the past or the future. For this reason, she often focuses on social relations. Although they are based on antagonisms, one can attempt to overcome them. Since 2015, she has been working on a project concerning the position of women in the Catholic religion, whose church still does not allow them to hold positions in its hierarchy (the Cassocks [Sutanny] series).

The artist also invited reflection on the condition of modern society in the exhibition Amensalism - Attention – And Now There Will Be a Change (PROM Kultury, 2015). The title word "amensalism" comes from nature and signifies a negative impact—the restriction of one species by another within the evolutionary struggle. It can be transferred to social, individual, and personal relations, which is why Iwona showed works concerning relationships with humans and animals (including the painting with the dead seal).

 

The Legacy of Joseph Beuys: Shamanism and Speciesism

The artist treats her works as traces of a certain internal process, a record of experiences associated with contemplating the mystery of life and death. Once, at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, she viewed an exhibition of Joseph Beuys's drawings—the author's self-commentaries, revealing his extraordinary sensitivity and empathy. Seeking contact with the hidden forces of nature, he depicted animals endowed with mythological symbolism or that which he bestowed upon them himself. This "man in a hat"—an artist, political and social reformer, omnipresent in the public life of that time—was surrounded by an aura of mystery, yet he revealed details of his biography and frequently returned to it in his artistic practice.

Joseph Beuys's worldview was defined by understanding the role of the artist as fulfilling a mission. Assuming the guise of a shaman, therapist, moralist, and teacher, he defined his total work—close to the Romantic idea of the synthesis of the arts (Gesamtkunstwerk)—as a sculpture, a field for building an alternative society. Opposed to all specializations, including artistic ones, he declared extreme egalitarianism. Aiming to expand its definition, he treated art as an expression of an individual's personal creation. "Everyone is an artist," he used to say. Therefore, he proclaimed the superiority of the creative process over the artistic object. In the 1960s, he expressed the synthesis of his beliefs in the Theory of Sculpture, Social Sculpture, or Social Plastic, defined as a principle of creative life.

 

In 1972, Beuys began searching for an alternative formula for education within an "academy without walls." In the Manifesto of the Free International University for Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research (FIU), written together with Heinrich Böll, we read:

 

"Creativity is not reserved for people practicing one of the traditional fields of art."

Beuys formulated postulates toward creativity, which he understood as a "catalyst" for transformations occurring within a human being and leading to the reshaping of their everyday life. "It seems to me that it is necessary to awaken the spiritual background of every psychological existence," he declared.

 

The creator of the Organization for Direct Democracy sought a new, better social order and taught what care for the environment means. In his texts and reflections, the artist revealed a deep fascination with nature. Like other representatives of the Fluxus movement, which he co-founded, Beuys practiced performance art. In November 1965, visible only through a window and on a television screen placed outside, he spent three hours in the interior of the Schnella Gallery in Düsseldorf, inaccessible to the public, speaking in a calm voice to a dead hare. The artist, his head covered in honey and gold leaf, held the animal's body on his lap. In accordance with the title of his action, he explained How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare. Basing it on a juxtaposition of oppositions: that which is based on intuition (the hare) and that which is rational (the human head), Beuys touched upon the meaning of interpretation and the impossibility of reaching the mystery of creation. Yet, can he feel justified in using the body of a dead animal for the purposes of his art and failing to provide it with proper respect after death, analogous to a human body?

 

In 1974, Joseph Beuys carried out the action I Like America and America Likes Me (commonly referred to as Coyote) at the René Block Gallery in New York, where, separated from the viewers by a fence, he coexisted enclosed with the title animal. The coyote is one of the most "powerful among a wide pantheon of deities" revered by Native Americans. Later, it lost its status and was particularly despised by the White Man. During the action, one could observe a dramatic confrontation, an exchange of roles, and a blending of the human and the animal. Beuys appealed to a "higher level of consciousness" achieved by humans, through which it was supposedly to become possible to "restore a sense of freedom to animals as well," including the coyote.

 

But did tearing it—a sentient being—away from its natural environment and condemning it to the immense stress of being confined in an enclosed room with a human have anything to do with freedom? Although Beuys had noble intentions, the premise of his performance—"to develop the power of freedom above all else"—proved to be an empty promise. The artist exposed the animal to trauma and, in the name of the "superiority" of his own species, subordinated the well-being of another, manifesting speciesism. Since the coyote was able to return to its natural environment, Iwona does not blame the artist entirely, but she admits that he crossed a certain line, which is instrumentalism when utilizing animals in the name of art.

The Ethics of Capital, Religion, and Animal Slaughter

 

Some works are difficult to evaluate unequivocally, such as Katarzyna Kozyra’s Animal Pyramid. The author of this sculpture personally put to death animals that had previously been destined for slaughter; however, their use for the realization of the work aroused immense controversy. According to Iwona TM, the utilization of an animal does not always have to entail condemnation, as long as it is justified.

Conversely, tying an emaciated dog on a leash in a gallery by Costa Rican artist Guillermo Vargas (2007) must provoke opposition. "If the dog had died on the street, no one would have paid attention to it," said the Costa Rican. Iwona would have preferred to save this tormented animal. In her view:

 

"Kozyra's action was more explicable because she showed that we kill animals every day. We kill lice, bacteria, pests, parasites. Kozyra crossed the line, but in certain situations, humans are capable of killing. Some things we do to survive, and some acts of killing are committed thoughtlessly, such as hunting, which is killing for pleasure. We must protest against such behaviors."

 

However, Iwona does not unconditionally oppose the killing of animals altogether, but rather mechanical killing and turning them into mere food. Sometimes it is necessary, but doing it on an industrial scale and the general treatment of animals is hard to accept. The need for capital accumulation and profit maximization on an unprecedented scale, which stood behind the development of industrial animal farming at the beginning of the 20th century, led to many tragedies. For instance, the owner of a farm in Lisowce starved chickens to make them more efficient and lay more eggs. "The employees have proof that they asked the owner for feed. He ordered them to continue starving them for a better effect. Thousands died," reported Gazeta Wyborcza (GW).

 

A change in dietary habits is also needed: there is no longer a need to eat so much meat; for years, people ate far less of it than today. "It is neither healthy nor necessary for the functioning of the body. It is healthy for capital, but capital should not dictate the laws for the world," Iwona said.

Alongside patriarchal culture, religion has also influenced humans' relationship with animals and assigned them a lower status. Temples historically looked like slaughterhouses where animals were offered as sacrifices. "Subdue the earth,"says the Bible, and in Catholicism, it was long maintained that animals "do not have a soul," just as women were once denied the right to possess one as inferior beings. Meanwhile, the role of religion could consist of teaching empathy and raising sensitivity to the fate of all creatures on earth, and thus animals as well. In Iwona's opinion, religion should stand in their defense, rather than that of hunters or business, and the church should oppose farming driven purely by a desire for profit, such as for fur, "which is exceptionally hideous."

 

Performative Protests: [canary] and the Fish

Because Iwona TM is moved by the fate of animals, including those used by artists, during the opening of the exhibition Animal (Galeria Bardzo Biała, 2016), she presented a performative action titled [canary]. She dedicated it to the little bird tied with a string to the boot of Zbigniew Warpechowski and to all creatures tormented and killed in the name of art. In her action—drawing on the wall—she used blue pigment, a symbol of healing associated, among other things, with the Medicine Buddha (Buddha Shakyamuni assumed his form in the color of lapis lazuli to heal suffering human beings with various ailments of the spirit). The public could also join the performance to repeat Iwona's drawing gesture and reflect on the mistreatment of innocent animals.

 

At the beginning of his action March, carried out in Stuttgart (1984), Warpechowski screamed "I love you" to a canary (or parakeet?) trapped in a cage. A moment later, he dragged the bird—freed from the cage but tied with a red ribbon to a military boot—a few times across the gallery interior. The bird tried to take short flights but eventually fell dead to the ground. Next, kneeling in front of the cage, the artist set fire to kerosene placed next to it on a plate. The flames caught his hair, but when the terrified audience started screaming, the artist calmly extinguished them with a pre-prepared, dampened towel.

 

 

"I responded to Warpechowski's performance because the canary's death made no sense. I wanted to bow over its death," Iwona commented. "While Katarzyna Kozyra's Animal Pyramid can be explained, Warpechowski, who tied the canary to his boot, is difficult to justify. He used the bird for his action without thinking that he might kill it. There was no reflection in it."

 

At the beginning of the 1970s, Warpechowski began creating provocative actions, causing hard-to-bear tension and protests from the audience. In 1971, during the inauguration of Andrzej Partum's Bureau of Poetry, he "employed" a live fish for the first time—"the first such 'artist' in the world." He threw it onto a board laid out on the floor with the word WATER written on it. When the fish manifested its desire by flopping around, he distributed water in glasses to the audience. This triggered angry reactions. Wiesław Borowski from the Foksal Gallery compared Warpechowski to the Viennese Actionists, who used raw meat and animal blood in their spectacles, shocking the audience, which led to their actions being maliciously labeled as the "slaughterhouse aesthetic." "You are not allowed to do this, we remember the occupation," shouted art critic Bożena Kowalska; however, as soon as she received the fish in a jar of water from Warpechowski, she quickly hid it under her fur coat and left!

 

During the Lublin Theatre Spring (1973), the artist conducted a Dialogue with a Fish, which he held in his hands, hugged, and spoke to affectionately. He wondered whether people would consider the "suffocation of the little fish" or his acting performance more important. In the end, he could not stand this "game" and threw the fish into the water. But the end was tragic anyway: when he went to get dressed, a girl who wanted to "help" him stepped on the fish, crushing it. In Autopsy(DESA Gallery, Kraków 1974), the creator put his head into an aquarium. Moments earlier, he had removed a fish from it, placing it on the countertop next to it. The result of this "change of ecosystems," which the audience could observe, was the simultaneous suffocation of both the artist and the fish.

 

According to Iwona TM, this cruelty toward innocent animals is difficult to justify. As an artist, she wants to protest against it. Can contact with an artwork change the viewer and the unjust system we live in?

 

"I do not believe that art can cause tangible change, as the avant-gardists of the early 20th century wanted. That didn't work out. But if we start a discussion, it can be a seed that yields change," Iwona said. "Every impulse is valuable."