Human/Nature, newly commissioned for ΕΜΣΤ and the exhibition, is a monumental textile installation made of painted silk and an accompanying animation film, You Are Not the Centre (inside the animal mind). In it – as in many of Talbot’s works – there’s a female protagonist – a version of the artist herself – who is always searching and exploring, trying to make sense of the world. In this work, Talbot leaves the human sphere to enter the animal mind, trying to understand the world viewed from non-human perspectives. The figure lives through different sensory experiences as she encounters the olfactory world of the dog, the mind of a spider that plans to make complex webs or the visual perceptions of deer and the anxiety responses of captive birds etc. The large-scale painted silk hanging is complemented by a sculpture of a Chimera, that Talbot created by drawing on medieval animal illustrations and classical chimera statues to symbolise human fantasies and the entangled relationships between humans, animals, and nature. Chimeras, monstrous human inventions combining different animals, served as metaphors for the human Ego, our imaginings of the unknown, and the often-monstrous ways we relate to the natural world. Together, these works seek to unravel human-nature entanglements and envision the possibility of alternative, more
caring futures.

The work is part of the Residency Program of the Project SUB 6.4 “Actions to promote Greek cultural exports and strengthen the Greek cultural name by the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens”, implemented within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0”, and funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.