3:05 minutes
The artist mirrors the movements of a dead cow being dislodged by a truck. This act of mimicry is performed through facial expressions that connote derangement, while also making an oblique reference to the language of dance—which often embodies animalistic movements. Salsjo takes advantage of this convention to articulate complex emotional states by performing manic bursts of laughter that are suddenly frozen to echo the lifelessness of the cow. While the symbolism of the animal remains open ended, the artist’s gesticulations suggest a combination of entrapment, lunacy and ecstasy. In this way, the work explores unsettling psychological spaces through sound and image rather than words.
During the early stages of her practice, Mia Salsjo produced a series of videos exploring the limits of language through self-portraiture, music and animalistic imagery. These works employ moving images and sound rather than the spoken word to convey meaning, functioning like pre-linguistic systems of communication. One of their defining characteristics is the use of atmospheric compositions that connote altered states with their cacophony, evoking the frenzy of trance meditation or madness. These spaces of alterity often incorporate self-recordings of the artist enacting seemingly delirious mental states with a variety of erratic expressions. Salsjo often explores this further by drawing a correlation between her image and animal corpses to allude to the repressed. More broadly, this device also speaks to the disavowed ‘primitivism’ that underpins Western civilization. Indeed, one could argue that the act of slaughtering sentient beings for sustenance is a reminder of our own animalistic nature.