Kristina Rozhkova's Photobook 'Gut Feeling' Explores Species, Restraint and Control

Kristina Rozhkova's photobook 'Gut Feeling', published by Void at €50 in hardcover, juxtaposes human and nonhuman bodies in scenes of feeding, breeding, hurting and restraining. A man grips a goose by the neck while pinning back its wings; other hands pull a dog's lips apart to reveal its teeth; live rats fill a glass jar; gutted fish organs spread across a table; a metal chain tightens around a man's neck. Mixing black-and-white and colour images, the sequencing sharpens their charge: a child's gappy mouth with new teeth faces white rodents in a pink metal cage, and breastfeeding images sit beside calves at udders and industrial milking equipment. Cages, ropes, traps and harnesses recur, their meanings shifting between coercion and consensual BDSM play. In a text at the back, Rozhkova recalls sitting in a dog crate as a child, calling it 'my own little house.' In 2024 she was detained after a semi-nude photoshoot at a St Petersburg cemetery and charged with desecrating burial sites, spending two months in detention before house arrest. The book is reviewed by Fi Churchman.