The Descent

In Domestic Katabasis, New York painter Martin Wittfooth’s new exhibition, the primal relationship between man and the animal kingdom reaches an anarchic conclusion as the animals are in open revolt of the system, of technology, of the status quo, of nature itself.

- Martin Wittfooth

“I use the term katabasis, which not a lot of people might know. It’s an old Greek term, one that shows in up hero’s tales— something from Joseph Campbell or about his archetypal hero’s journey. It is the valley into which our hero descends. In many stories the hero descends to never return, but alternatively there are stories where the descent offers challenges and a hope that maybe the hero could rise out of it,” Wittfooth says of his show, now on view at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles. “As a collective species, we’re in a state of katabasis, which is why I’ve paired these scenes with domesticated animals…dogs, cats, bulls and horses, farm animals as well. We have a human desire to manicure our own experience, even with animals. Even nature itself is brought into our world of human form.”