In her novels, animals are always present: birds, fish or monkeys. In this narrative essay, Teresa Präauer writes, reflectively and entertainingly, about the indistinct boundaries between humans and animals that are so often found in art.
In »Becoming Animal«, Teresa Präauer observes stages of transition, transformation, metamorphosis. Her text allows anyone or anything that has hair to make an appearance: in places that are overgrown with textured surfaces, fur, fake fur or grass. She has assembled a collection of shaggy figures for this purpose, from medieval drawings of mythical creatures – half real, half fantasy – to hairpieces from the Alps, Toni Erdmann wearing wigs and costumed furries from subculture. The author explores all these artificial and artistic phenomena in concrete pictorial observations and philosophical considerations. In Teresa Präauer’s work, animalisation is a procedure described in terms of art, culture, film and fashion, but she also applies it to the writing and reading of literature itself. As we write, we exhaust the possibilities of speech, reaching its human limits. As we read, we are transformed, according to the warning and the promise this narrative-essayistic text holds.
