Fear of the Familiar
By Kirsten Howard (04/23/10 14:24:51)
This text was interesting in its regards to post-modernism in relation to working with select animals in art. I agree that it seems almost forbidden to work with the familiar, especially in regard to working with domesticated animals/pets. It made me think of something my photography TA told my class a couple years ago on the first day: that he didn't want any pictures of people's dogs. I suppose its just been done a lot or perhaps is seen as cliche. However, after reading the article, it seems that banning work that deals with a certain group of animals is not in conjunction with the core ideas of post-modernism at all. Post-modernism is supposed to be partially about not having any boundaries or class-scales with regard to race, sex, etc. Therefore, it should hold true that all animals are equal in appeal for artistic representation. And yet, the article says post-modern artists don't want to work with domesticated animals. This is highly contradictory. Also, the last question we talked about in class, about love and knowledge was interesting too. Someone said that it is a love for knowledge that drives the artists to work with wild animals. However, I believe that a true love for something comes out of love itself, a genuine goodness of nature and not something that needs to have the result of knowledge.

Genuine love is not driven by the desire for result or knowledge.

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