Birds' Head

The hybrid possibilities of man-as-animal and man-becoming-animal emerged out of historical Expressionism and Surrealism, with roots drawn partly from the horrors of the First World War. The echoes and permutations of these “monsters” appear in works by Grassmann, filtered through a complex network of narratives both dreamlike and grotesque. The visual emphasis on the birds’ heads and beaks recalls early—and decidedly fantastical—illustrations of Brazil's native animals, such as those made by the Franciscan André Thévet in his sixteenth-century text, Singularities of France Antarctique.