TOTEM: Animal as Symbol

Artwork by Atlantic Works Members & Invited Guests

Join us at Atlantic Works Gallery for the opening reception: Thurs. Jan. 16, 2014, 6-9 PM

Have you ever felt the stirrings of an animal daemon (or soul) within you? Or felt a connection to the natural and animal world which made you feel like you were remembering something ancestral, dream-like, vital, and lost in our contemporary reality of extinction, dwindling resources, and degraded landscapes?

Historically, the TOTEM — or rather the shamanistic spirit it embodies — is an object or symbol representing an animal which served as an emblem of a family, clan, or tribe of people, reminding them of their ancestry, life-force, and mythic past. In this exhibit of installations, paintings, and video, the Atlantic Works Artists explore the idea of the totem, the animal dialog and the ties that bind us to the animal world.

As wild spaces become increasingly distant, and animals increasingly threatened with extinction, the works in this exhibit present a dramatic, revelatory tour of all that is wildly alive, and an invocation of what we are missing.