Q27: Animal studies: describe new theoretical frameworks. Give examples of works which use animal/non-human subjects as narrative voice or central perspective of presetation.

Question 1

What are animal studies?

Answer 1

Critical animal studies (CAS) - an interdisciplinary field in the humanities, social sciences, and global activism.
- emerged in the late 90s/early 00s

Question 2

What is the core interest of animal studies?

Answer 2

• an ethical reflection on relations between humans and other animals, firmly grounded in trans-species intersectionality, environmental justice, and social justice politics and critical analysis of the underlying role played by the capitalist system
• integrating academic research with political engagement and activism
• studying how animals figure and are configured in human worlds (human worlds are built upon animal lives and deaths, conceptually as well as physically)

Question 3

What is the importance of personification of animals, e.g. in fables?

Answer 3

By using literal representations of animals, artists and activists can force audiencs to look at the way we treat and think about those animals instead of using them to make us look at the way we treat and think about each other.

Question 4

Give examples of artists that contribute to the discussion within animal studies.

Answer 4

• Miru Kim “I Like Pigs and Pigs Like Me”
• Damian Hirst: natural history series “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”, “Cain and Abel”
• Richard Long “A Line Made By Walking”

Question 5

Describe the artistic style of Damian Hirst.

Answer 5

• preoccupation with life/death, science/religion
• he shows the coldness and brutality of death with unseen honesty
• enraging but also intriguing art

Question 6

What is so innovative of Damian Hirst’s controversial art?

Answer 6

Animal bodies are dead yet preserved, we are confronted with the inevitability of death and decay. Science and religion are often viewed as opposites yet Hirst seems to merge them into a new synthesis, using references to religious imagery in order to emphasize the juxtaposition of science vs religion.

Question 7

Describe the problem of controversial art (e.g. Hirst).

Answer 7

Art is supposed to evoke emotions. No matter how civilised or morally developed we are, we are still fascinated with something gruesome or taboo.
- “The work should attract you and repel you at the same time” (Hirst)

Question 8

What argument does Hirst make in terms of the role of animal in the art industry?

Answer 8

• pigments, wetting agents, canvas glue, and artist brushes are all derived from the death of animals and insects
• even if he didn’t resolve to killing animals in his art, he would still harm animals by using their dead bodies
• Hirst confronts the viewer with the reality that the beauty of art comes at the sacrifice of the lives of living creatures whether they are aware of it or not