Simona Koutná's book Of Dogs and Daughters: Between Surrogate and Self was published by FFA BUT and Onomatopee
Of Dogs and Daughters brings a compelling record of female artists and writers, whose voices have been documented and collected through friendships and chance encounters. Combined with found material that proposes dog-human perspectives, this book attempts to redefine the mother-daughter relationship through a surrogate lens, exploring images of closeness, of violence caused by film franchises and mechanisms of nostalgia aimed at caregivers and children. The contributions by artists Carmen Dusmet Carrasco and Simona Koutná, and writer Susan van Veen are complemented by the introspections of memoirist Giuseppa and interlaced with passages from the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956) by Dodie Smith. Each voice represents a unique personal account against a backdrop of deficient social support, single parenthood and absent caregivers, serving as meeting points on a journey of inner emancipation.
The book was created in 2022 as part of Simona Koutná’s doctoral research project My Surrogate Self, which focuses on decoding how visual culture shapes female representation and self-identity. With this aim, Koutná delves into her childhood pop-cultural idols, dating back to the 1950s, rediscovering the nostalgia of her parents' and grandparents' generations and intertwining it with her own childhood experiences in the 1990s. She seeks to explore how these ingrained archetypes resonate today. Edited by Susan van Veen, the book weaves together interpretations and experiences of a fictional canine character with stories of motherhood, viewed from the external perspective of a daughter—stories that don't always align with the mother's internal narrative. Through this content, femininity is portrayed as a fragmented experience, challenging the patriarchal construction of "woman." This experience, filled with blind spots—seen through both human and highly anthropomorphized canine eyes—traverses various locations including Rome, northern Italy, Prague, The Hague, Amsterdam, and London (Primrose Hill), covering a time span from 1950 to 2024.
Carmen Dusmet Carrasco (ES) is a time-based media artist, who explores how labour shapes individual and collective identities. Giuseppa (IT) is a memoirist, a woman and a (surrogate) mother, who was born in Sicily in the 1960s, now living in the North of Italy. Simona Koutná (CZ) is an audiovisual artist and writer, who examines the influence of female representation in visual culture on the subjective experience. Dorothy Gladys Smith (UK) was an English novelist, playwright and the author of the children’s novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956). Susan van Veen (NL) is a writer and cultural critic. She writes poetry, reviews and essays and is currently working on a book about nostalgia.
The book is available for purchase at the FFA library for 222 CZK or through the co-editor and distribution network for 14 EUR.
Simona Koutná (ed.)
Carmen Dusmet Carrasco, Giuseppa, Simona Koutná, Dodie Smith, Susan van Veen
2024, English, 72 pages, 11 x 17 cm
softcover, black-and-white print
design Andrea Salerno
ISBN 978-80-214-6196-3 (FFA BUT)
ISBN 978-90-833621-9-9 (Onomatopee)
The book was launched during an author reading at the San Serriffe bookstore in Amsterdam. It was also presented during the exhibition She Tried to Lie Down in Sulfuric Acid at the POP-UP Gallery AVU and as part of Brno Art Week 2024.
| Author | Mgr. Tímea Vitázková |
|---|---|
| Published | |
| Short URL | https://www.favu.vut.cz/en//f26745/d266826 |