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Psychedelia (2022)
The intentional consumption of psychedelics, alcohol, and other mind and mood altering substances is linked to consciousness and thus was long thought to be exclusively a human characteristic. However there are now countless examples of various species of animals not only consuming said substances, but doing so intentional with the goal of being inebriated. This would suggest consciousness in these animals and thus the ability to conceptualize the future. Italian ethnobotanist, Giorgio Samorini, wrote a book, ‘Animals and Psychedelics: The Natural World and the Instinct to Alter Consciousness’, which explores many facets of this phenomenon and concludes that “the inebriation among all classes of animals is a perfectly natural, normative behavior…the pursuit of inebriation has been proposed as a kind of fourth drive—akin to hunger, thirst, and sex”. The 16 images that make up Psychedelia (2022) look to visually explore this relationship between animals and substances as well as the role and impact humans might have on it as well.
