Hair from the Throat

The blurred distinction between animal and human

In Hair From the Throat the performance artist Kate McIntosh will continue her in-depth study of ‘human naturalness’ which she started in her previous work All Natural.

Kate McIntosh read in an Australian newspaper the story of a man found drowned in a shallow river: he was wearing a home-made fish suit. This passionate, doomed attempt to escape human nature is the starting point for Hair from the Throat.

Scientists argue about the dividing line between human and animal: there's always been a deep unease around this blurred boundary. What if we wanted to re-create ourselves in new skins - as creatures from our own imaginations? What if the inherited knowledge and social constructions of being 'human' could be thrown off and we could move towards the ‘natural animal state’?

Our cultural history comprises a wealth of images and stories about people who change into other forms. However, anyone who becomes 'other' faces new challenges of survival - from loneliness, to a more vulnerable position in the food chain. We work hard to fit in to the 'civilized world' and being banned from this civilization fills us with fear. We watch people search for a more comfortably fitting skin with horror and delight. 'Are you one of us? If not, what are you?'

In Hair from the Throat there is a plenty of experimentation with radical self-transformation, and amateurish attempts at animalism.