Cold Turkey 2025
Breathing, eating, sleeping, fucking: these are the driving forces of humanity. Is there any nuance to our patterns? All we need to calm the inner beast is a comfortable bed, good food, and to get off. Despite being driven by base instinct, human society is absorbed in hierarchy and dominion.
How do we define the distinction between animal and human? Does it lay in our biological differences, or have we invented the distinction to satisfy our perceived superiority? Ever present in the history of iconography and imagery, animals are often used to embody traits of humanity. We are undeniably moved to represent ourselves through animals. What happens to our feelings of superiority when the line between human and animal is blurred?
Cold Turkey proposes that our more base, animalistic behaviors allow us to relate to one another and find common ground: craving a sense of simplicity or an excuse to behave in animalistic ways. Rather than denying this experience, we should examine and connect with our desires, disorderliness, and fantasies to escape the human body.
Written by Kaia Love King-Hall and Ira Zimmerman
Cold Turkey took place November 16, 2025 in Downtown Los Angeles at the Allied Crafts Building, curated by Kaia King-Hall
Exhibiting artists include Bella Anderson, Isaias “IC” Cruz, Vále Cruz, Anastasia Denos, Jered Frigillana, Kaia Love King-Hall, Madisen Matsuura, William Miller, Ben Zimmerman, and Ira Zimmerman.
Photo documentation by Elodie Hekimian-Brogan
