Quit Using Us

2002
Nina Katchadourian. C-print mounted on aluminum
Nina Katchadourian offsets natural systems, imposing an anthropomorphic framework to alter outcomes and establish new balance. The interventions and observations of her “Uninvited Collaborations with Nature” and “Confusing Animals” series provide a view into the daily lives and cycles of animals that invisibly parallel those of humans. She creates intersections between the two, presenting her art as nature and nature as art, questioning the value judgments assigned to both. She considers that Quit Using Us “might read initially as a kind of political slogan, but obviously the caterpillars have really not had any agency in making this message, which complicates the situation.”