Artist/Animal Reading
By Natalie Croak (06/09/13 15:36:36)
Artist/Animal was an article about a couple of artist who have used animals in their artwork to push the boundaries of what is considered moral behavior. One piece that the article described was an artist burning three mice alive in a gallery to mimic the smell of dying rats that he encountered while in the Vietnam War. Another piece had three blenders filled with water and goldfish. Patrons had the ability to turn the blenders on to make fish paste. The artists argued that art is beyond the reach of moral criticism and that the only way to share an artist's experiences of something as horrible as the Vietnam War was to make this type of art. The goldfish art piece was a commentary on the power that we have over animals and animals in art can also be used to illustrate that many believe that animals are only useful as food, tools, or as a cultural mirror.
I thought that these artworks sounded pretty disturbing. It seemed to me that the artists did not care about the animals as individuals, they only saw them as materials for an art piece. Animal cruelty laws were created because lawmakers recognized that hurting animals is often a precursor for hurting other humans. As a result animal cruelty laws are more based on the desire to protect humans than animals. I believe that society should place value on all forms of life, which would result in art such as this being immoral.


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