Animals Share an Eye With Artist in Her Series of Surreal Self Portraits

Artist Flora Borsi has an unusual way of depicting her self-portraits. Rather than making them all about her, she shares the spotlight with a variety of animals. It’s part of her ongoing series Animeyed, now in its second iteration known as Animeyed II, in which she shares one of her eyes with an animal. The sleek and stylish images feature Borsi in makeup and costume to match her subjects; they range from a fluffy rabbit to a tiny beetle.

For Borsi, some of the creatures in Animeyed II hold special meaning to her because of the connection she feels to them. “My favorite is the black swan,” she tells My Modern Met, “since they're treated in the animal world how I've been treated in the past. Not accepted for being different.” In that particular image, Borsi has used Photoshop and digital retouching to create a dramatic feathery eye, visually bonding herself with the dark swan.

Beyond personal ties to the creatures featured in her series, Borsi’s larger goal of Animeyed and Animeyed II is to remind us to treat all animals with respect. “This series is meant to symbolize the resemblance of animals to humans. I wanted to bring attention to the beauty of the animal world, to show the uniqueness of each feature of each species,” she says. “They're so special, people should treat them kindly, every one of them from the fish to the swan.”