Lani Burshtein

Infantasia

2014

This series of screenprints examines a common motif in my work-- the figure of the fetus or infant. Newborn infants have bizarre body proportions, an alien quality that elicits sympathy, nurturing, pity and revulsion. Babies this young have little muscular strength or coordination and use stereotyped movements that, to me, evoke the rhythm of waves or the struggling of prey animals. These prints engage with sweetness and disgust as interlinked reactions to natural processes.