Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni explores the thin, often imperceptible line between life and death and between the ritualistic and consumerist aspects of the violence that we inflict on animals. The photographs on view not only document the various ways in which humans relate to animals, but also expose these relationships as deeply political, inseparable from power and exploitation systems and from religious or cultural traditions. How often do we spare a thought for the life of an animal before it becomes food? The sculpture titled The Intermediary is in fact a used butcher’s block still bearing the traces of cutting up and butchering scores of animals. Monkey heads that have been sawn off, lion skins wrapped in plastic – part of the illegal trade in exotic wildlife – discarded sheepskins after Ramadan, Rahmouni’s images are not just about stating the obvious. Rather, they highlight the cultural and religious structures that make sacrifice an integral part of human experience and call on us to consider our complicity in these practices and the place of animals in a world shaped by human values and rules.

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