Natasha is fascinated by the interconnection between nature and humanity, and depicts animals in her work to symbolise different parts her psyche and its perception of reality. This work is a part of her current series entitled: The Inhuman Condition.
The Inhuman Condition reflects the artist’s life-long, intense love and admiration of animals, and deeply personal relationship with them and their environment, a love that also underlies a strong commitment to environmental activism.
Combining in this series humans alongside animals and animal-human hybrids, some in the very act of transition, Natasha explores the idea of a shared metaphysical evolution of humans as just one part of the natural world, contradicting the long-held belief that humans are fundamentally different and far superior to other creatures.
The title of the series plays on the adage of suffering being the human condition, asking whether the cause of our innate tendency toward anguish is a direct result of our disconnect with our natural environment.
The artist believes that humankind will become more whole by recognising our fundamental, biological and metaphysical connection with all of life. By recognising these relationships with the natural world, humanity can start to recover the lost parts of itself and find a deeper sense of belonging.
“We are, after all, the only species posing a real threat to our own existence. Perhaps, in our eternal quest for information, power and control, we have forgotten what it truly means to be a part of our natural world. Perhaps we as a species have lost the art of existence?” - Natasha Zraikat
