creatures in the gallery: the influence of art and other cultural phenomena in the relationship...
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Charlotte Wilkie SullivanUndergraduate DissertationTRANSCRIPT
Creatures in the Gallery
The influence of art and other cultural phenomena in the
relationship between humans and other animals
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor Degree of
Time-Based Art and Digital Film (Hons)
Number of words in main body of dissertation: 7480
Charlotte Wilkie Sullivan
090013786
Time-Based Art and Digital Film
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design
The University of Dundee
Scotland
January 2015
Contents
Section Page No.
Acknowledgements 1List of figures 2
Introduction 6
Chapter 1: Origins of Consciousness 9
Chapter 2: Distant Relatives 15
- The Symbolic Animal
- Human consciousness versus animal 21 unconsciousness
Chapter 3: Becoming Animal 28
- Pierre Huyghe 29
- Oleg Kulik 36
- Kathy High 43
Conclusion 47
References 49
Bibliography 52
Acknowledgements
Firstly, I would like to thank my Academic Advisor Euan McArthur for
his encouragement, knowledge and adorable (yet informative)
penguin memes.
I would also like to thank my dad, who has passed down to me his
love of the arts and natural sciences, and who has inspired me to
write this dissertation.
Finally, I would like to thank Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield for
providing comfort, in the form of cookie dough ice cream, in my
constant times of distress. I won't thank you for the fact I can no
longer fit into any of my clothes.
1
List of Figures
fig 1.1 page 11
George Stubbs, Anatomy of the Horse, Plate III (1766), Etched Plate,
[online] [Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Plate_III_from_'
The_Anatomy_of_the_Horse'_by_George_Stubbs,_1853.JPG
fig. 1.2 page 13
Lascaux Cave Painting, [online] [Accessed 13 January 2015]
Available at: http://mrbelloblog.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/07/Preman-lascaux-cave-paintings-1.jpg
fig 2.1 page 16
Obverse of the Great Seal of the United States of America, [online]
[Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/US-GreatSeal-
Obverse.png
fig 2.2 page 18
Marcus Coates, 2004, Journey to the Lower World, live performance,
[online] [Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
http://pumphousegallery.org.uk/uploads/Journey%20to%20the
%20Lower%20World_Marcus%20Coates2004%20Photography
%20Nic.jpg
2
fig 2.3 page 19
Anon, The Weighing of the Heart, Book of the Dead of Ani, c. 1300
BC [online] [Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
http://startlediguana.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/bd_weighing_of_th
e_heart.jpg
fig 2.4 page 20
Michele Huet, 1978, from The Dance, Art and Ritual of Africa,
photograph, [online] [Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
http://www.randafricanart.com/images/Dogon_dama_ceremony.jpg
fig 2.5 page 22
Sandro Botticelli, 1467, Madonna and Child, oil painting, [online]
[Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
http://www.wikiart.org/en/sandro-botticelli/madonna-and-child
fig 2.6 page 23
Damian Hirst, 2007, Mother and Child (Divided), Glass, stainless
steel, Perspex, acrylic paint, cow, calf and formaldehyde solution,
[online] [Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T12/T12751_10.jpg
fig 3.1 page 30
Pierre Huyghe, 2011-2012, Untilled (Reclining Female Nude),
sculpture, [online] [Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fmF1pfCwvAQ/maxresdefault.jpg
3
fig 3.2 page 31
Pierre Huyghe, 2011, Zoodram 4, aquarium, [online] [Accessed 13
January 2015] Available at:
http://www.letemps.ch/rw/Le_Temps/Samedi
%20Culturel/2013/11/16/Divers/Images/Pierre%20Huyghe--
672x359.jpg
fig 3.3 page 34
Pierre Huyghe, 2010, The Host and the Cloud, film, [online]
[Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
https://www.berlinale.de/media/filmstills/2011_3/forumexpanded/2011
5840_2_IMG_FIX_700x700.jpg
fig 3.4 page 36
Pierre Huyghe, 2012, Human, live dog, [online] [Accessed 13
January 2015] Available at: http://www.rundschau-
online.de/image/view/2014/3/11/26817428,26286963,highRes,14891
4005F00EFBF.jpg
fig 3.5 page 38
Oleg Kulik, 1994, Mad Dog, performance, [online] [Accessed 13
January 2015] Available at: http://www.potz.blitz.szpilman.de/wp-
content/uploads/2009/10/oleg-kulik-mad-dog.jpg
fig 3.6 page 40
Oleg Kulik, I Bite America and America Bites Me, performance,
[online] [Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
http://static.squarespace.com/static/523328b5e4b0a7c4005929ca/t/5
3a84e7ce4b0c510a543b5f4/1403539107175/Image+2.jpg
4
fig 3.7 page 41
Joseph Beuys, 1974, I Like America and America Likes Me,
performance, [online] [Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
http://uploads0.wikiart.org/images/joseph-beuys/i-like-america-and-
america-likes-me.jpg
fig 3.8 page 44
Kathy High, 2000-2005, Everyday Problems of the Living, video
series, [online] [Accessed 13 January 2015] Available at:
http://kathyhigh.com/video-everyday-problems.html
fig 3.9 page 46
Kathy High, 2005, Embracing Animal, installation, [online] [Accessed
13 January 2015] Available at: http://kathyhigh.com/video-embracing-
animal.html
5
Introduction
Humans are animals.
Given the knowledge that we have aquired over the last couple of
centuries regarding evolution and anthropology, this is a difficult fact
to dismiss. But how well do we, as a civilisation at the peak of
societal development, understand ourselves as being members of
the animal kingdom, rather than exclusively unique beings influenced
by the philosophies of the Human Condition? To what extent do we
understand other animals?
Hans Hass introduces his book The Human Animal with the question,
“Can we learn much about our own behaviour from studying that of
animals?” (Hass, H., p.17). Since Darwin's discoveries regarding
animal evolution, (including the evolution of humans), the notion of
the "Human Animal" is an idea widely explored by scientists, writers,
philosophers, physchologists and artists, among others. Thanks to
advancements in scientific and technological methodology, we have
begun to form a deep understanding of animal behaviours; our own
as well as that of others.
Across history, the way that we have connected with animals has
fluctuated greatly. Animals started as respected rivals and food, as
seen in depictions of primitive cave art. The image of the animal
6
became symbolic of human cultural developments. We have
depicted ourselves in animal form, as totems and figures of worship.
They have served as companions. We have also abused animal
resources in the name of science and entertainment, believing
ourselves to be at the top of the bestial hierarchy. As a contemporary
global village, a collective mind that has been formed by modern
science, technology and society, do we remain anthropocentric
beings? How have artists expressed their own ideas and opinions
regarding the relationship between humans and other animals to an
audience?
This dissertation is not intended to convince the reader that we did in
fact evolve from and alongside the great apes. What this dissertation
will discuss, is the history behind the relationship that Homo sapiens
has had with other animal species, and how these ties have been
visually documented in art, past and contemporary. I intend to
discover how art has influenced the way we understand ourselves as
animals, through artists' visual and conceptual exploration of other
animal species.
Chapter 1 will take the reader back to explore the roots of "modern"
humans. The story of our relationship with animals begins with the
invention of early art. This chapter will begin to discuss the
importance of the totem in our historical link with other animals.
7
Chapter 2 will discuss how the appearance of the animal in art and
culture has affected our understanding of animals, expanding on the
use of the totem and various methods of respresentation. It will also
explore how religion, philosophy and science have shaped our
knowledge of human and animal behaviour.
Finally, chapter 3 will examine how contemporary artists Pierre
Huyghe, Oleg Kulik and Kathy High have approached the bridging of
animal and human relations in their work through the theme of
becoming.
8
Chapter 1: Origins of Consciousness
J. Bronowski argues that modern humans - ancestors that are,
physically, closest to the how we look today - appeared within the last
million years (Bronowski, J., p.41). One thing that distanced these
hominids from those that came before was the ability to use tools in a
creative way; to make art. According to Bronowski, this is how we
seperated from other animal species, as where the "animal leaves
traces of what it was; man alone leaves traces of what he created"
(Bronowski, J., p.42). It is argued that art was the birth of human
culture.
The co-existence between humans and other animals has been
documented visually since prehistoric times. The earliest form of
figurative art, Upper Paleolithic cave paintings, often depict scenes of
human hunters, fellow animal predators and the animals that would
be preyed upon. The content, detail and skill observed in these
paintings has led to many ideas regarding their purpose. Many
theories, such as those of David-Lewis Williams, link cave art to the
development of cultural beliefs, such as religion and magic.
Early art is also believed to be the first step towards scientific
curiosity, "The motifs of parietal art include... an interesting study of
bison images [showing] that they depict aspects of that species'
behaviour." (Lewis-Williams, D., loc 371) These paintings may have
9
acted as the first anatomical studies of animals; seeing that many
pictures depicted beasts having been struck by weapons, there was
possibly a deep studying into which parts of the animal body would
be most affected by the hunters' spears. This would have aided in
forming hunting strategies among groups. Because creating art is a
social activity, designed to evoke a response within the social group
(Lewis-Williams, D., loc. 632), this method of painting animals would
have given the entire clan a deeper understanding of the dynamics of
their prey; hunting being the human's main involvement with other
animals at this time.
Scientific curiosity has led the production of many artworks. Complex
studies of the animal form have been featured in the work of artists
such as George Stubbs, whose anatomical paintings and engravings
of the horse remain some of the most important visual aids to animal
artists today.
10
fig 1.1
Just as modern fusions of art and science are designed to give
structure to the natural world around us, the art of primitive man
helped map out the chaotic world that their fast evolutionary path had
forced them to endure. This transition into taming the landscape, and
thus, the introduction of art, is arguably what caused us to become
human and seperate ourselves from the rest of the animal kingdom
(Lewis-Williams, D., loc. 779).
Still relating to hunting practices, it is believed that Upper Paleolithic
painters made pictures as a form of "hunting magic", intended to
"give hunters more power over their prey." (Lewis-Williams, D., loc.
691) This may explain why certain animals appeared more often than
11
others; for example, the Lascaux cave is dominated by images of
bison and cattle, an important food source for the Paleolithic people.
Another theory is that the magic behind these paintings would cause
the animals depicted to flourish in numbers, allowing the hunters a
larger food source, as seen in Australian cave art made by the Arunta
people (Lewis-Williams, D., loc. 683).
Many theorists believe that as these cultural beginnings developed,
cave art evolved to feature the organic image for the same reasons
that we produce them today: they became representational. Cave art
became a social exercise relating to more than hunting. The image of
the animal arose as a symbol. Increasingly complex compositions
appeared in caves such as Lascaux, and theorists believe that,
similarly to how we apply concepts to art today, cave painters
produced these pictures to engage the social group in stories and
meanings. Depictions of animals such as deer and bison rutting are
believed to respresent conflict within human tribes (Lewis-Williams,
D., loc. 832-840). Animals such as stags, even today, are important
symbols of power. This knowledge that we have of the particular
symbol seems to have been passed down through history since the
Upper Paleolithic times.
In many caves, including Lascaux, paintings of horses and
predatorial animals have been found. These animals were rarely
hunted for food so they appear far less frequently. The animals are
12
depicted as interacting with one another as members of a communal
group. This has led many to believe that different animals represent
different members of the social tribe. The painters may have
assigned a painting to a person based on similar traits, such as
strength and leadership. This theory is supported by paintings of
individual handprints intermingled with those of animals. This links to
the first visual evidence of totemism; the word defining animals that
are clan emblems (Lewis-Williams, D., loc. 675). Totemism is still
practiced in contemporary societies, as seen on flag designs or
company logos, for example.
fig 1.2
Cave painters appeared to have a deep respect for, and curiosity of,
the other living beings around them. The symbols that they created
were formed by an acute understanding of animal behaviours, only
possible through close observations of animal lives. Cave painters
appeared not to emphasise the differences between humans and
13
other animals, but the similarities in our behaviours. Even individual
people represent certain qualities. We also follow the same life
patterns as other animals. We eat, reproduce, and die. Cave
paintings documented real life. This seems to reflect the zoological
methods we use today to study animals; these investigations have
always involved visual means, be it cave painting or high definition
filming.
Cave painters were the first philosophers, contemplating life beyond
basic instinct. The ideas that they presented have survived the
passings of generations and continue to be explored; symbolism is,
to this day, a major aspect of how we tell stories and apply
connotations. Many of the symbols themselves have remained
universally recognised.
Although these artists may have introduced a deeper understanding
of other animals by turning them into symbols, the continuation of
seeing them as so, in the thousands of years that followed, may have
diminished our understanding of them as living creatures. As our
growing brains and advanced communication allowed human culture
to grow in other ways, has our ability to relate to other animals
declined?
14
Chapter 2: Distant Relatives
The Symbolic Animal
The image of the animal has been prevalent in global cultures
throughout human history. For millenia, humanity has fixated on the
symbolic meanings behind what animal behaviour represents. Steve
Baker explores in Picturing the Beast how the image of the animal
and its role in human culture has shaped our development and
identity. Referring to political issues, Baker states, “...nations have
chosen... to depict not only other rival nations but also themselves in
animal form, or else to define themselves by means of identification
with animals.” (Baker, p.71) This is clear in examples such as the
eagle of the United States of America, which symbolises freedom
due to its wild nature. The eagle respresents not one individual, but
the collective power of the country and its ideals. Ironically, the Nazi
party was also represented by the image of an eagle, however, this
animal was symbolised by its power as a bird of prey, linking to the
members of the Nazi party being 'hunters'. The eagle is more
respected in the US than animals such as cattle, because the people
relate to its symbolic meaning. Cattle, however, are revered in Indian
culture for its importance to Hinduism. These animals are depicted by
artists, often in a glorified style, to act as omnipresent beings within
their respective culture. There is a clear correlation between the
presence of the animal image and its status in society. This is
because these beasts are totems in the true sense of the word; they
15
are animal emblems of a 'clan'.
fig 2.1
Freud explains the role the totem as "the common ancestor of the
clan... it is their guardian spirit and helper..." (Freud, S., p.2) In
prehistoric times, totems were linked to magic and rituals. Freud
describes how in early Australian aboriginal colonies, totem animals
stood in for the lack of religion or social norms. Research into these
colonies showed that, unlike their closest geographical neighbours,
they lacked the means to build houses, farm or domesticate animals;
therefore were purely animalistic in their practices. Because clan
members sctructured their behaviours around beliefs regarding their
totems, the totems represented a crude form of culture (Freud, S.,
p.1-2). Early totemism created a supernatural link between humans
and animals. The practice caused people to bring animals into the
16
human world, where they exist as equal or even superior beings to
us. Although early tribes worshipped totems because of superstitions,
the moral principles behind totemic animals have survived in
contemporary culture; nations are encouraged to admire their totem
rather than cause harm to it, and also behaviourally reflect the
totem's symbolic respresentation.
A contemporary artist who explores totemism is Marcus Coates,
who's artwork “...juxtaposes civility and animality in a way that
elucidates and furthers the concept of becoming” (Broglio, p.101). In
this performance, Coates becomes the animals that he attempts to
communicate with. As a result, the animals become human through
the artist, who delivers the animals' message with a human voice.
Coates' work is very much community-orientated, through which he
engages with small communities of people, such as the residents of
a tower block in Liverpool and throws them into his own world of
animal representation (Broglio, p.108). In Journey to the Lower
World, Coates, dressed in a red stag hide (assuming his individual
totem identity), spiritually enters the world of animal spirits via
descending the building's elevator, where this community's totems
reside. There he makes contact, by copying the behaviours of the
animals, with the beasts he encounters. He then interprets the
symbolic associations of each animal to answer questions asked by
the community. This shamanistic ritual allows the artist to pass
through various animal identities and by doing so, transcend his
17
human form in order to offer spiritual guidance to the residents.
fig 2.2
In the video documentation of Coates' performance, the audience is
seen to react with amusement. Shamanism is a primal ritual that is
associated with ancient cultures. Although there is a huge market for
spiritual guidance as delivered by mediums and phychics, the
concept of shamanism has mostly lost its impact in contemporary
Western society, being mostly associated with new-age groups and
minority religions. It could be argued that on a spiritual level, modern
cultures require the voice of a civilised human being, who better
understands our natures, rather than the guidance of magic animals
that cannot relate to human levels of awareness.
18
The word totem is also used to describe animals that represent
individuals, however this definition may be illused (Lewis-Williams,
D., loc. 675). Representing the individual as an animal to convey
status has been practiced in most past cultures. The first evidence of
this exists in cave paintings, where depictions of animal-headed
people were believed to represent sorcerers. (Lewis-Williams, D., loc.
368) Many Egyptian gods were depicted as having the heads of
animals; Anubis, the jackal-headed god, was believed to prepare the
dead for their journey into the afterlife. This links to the jackal's
behaviour as a scavenger. In the same way that Anubis removed the
body's internal organs during embalming, the jackal removes the
carcass' flesh before the body disintegrates. Commonly, figures of
respect or worship were imagined in animal form. Bearing animal
qualities meant that the figure transcended the boundaries of human
ability, powers that a worshipper may have hoped to secure. It is
similar to the process practiced by shamans, as demonstrated by
artists such as Marcus Coates.
fig 2.3
19
Even today, post-colonial tribes such as the Malian Dogon people,
will adorn complex costumes made of the skins, feathers or bones of
local animals such as leopards, perform ritual dances in the belief
that they will adopt the desired animal attributes, and thus gain a new
identity. Animal skins were also used as a material for sculpture,
which was believed to imbue the statue with the characteristics of the
given creatures (Delafosse, M., p.233). Seeing the animal as a
personal identity shows a deep respect and understanding for the
non-human, or as Baker describes it, an equilibrium. These rituals
are associated with communities who are, arguably, less developed
economically, but certainly less influenced by the major religions
(Elder, Wolch & Emel, p.185)
fig 2.3
20
Human consciousness vs animal unconsciousness
Religious or ritual practices revering the animal are far less common
in Western cultures. Ancient religions revolving around the powers of
nature, such as Paganism, developed into the modern religions most
widely practiced worldwide today, namely Christianity, Judaism and
Islam. These faiths express decidedly more anthropocentric views
and are concerned with human existentialism; the "totem" that many
people now seek guidance from is God, universally imagined in
human form. The Christian concept of Young Earth Creationism, as
described in the Book of Genesis, has been taught since 1517 by the
Protestant Reformation as a "return to basic scriptural truths". (Bartz,
P., 1984). Young Earth Creationism teaches that the Earth and
everything upon it was created by God, less than ten thousand years
ago. This interpretation of the Genesis story, and closely related
interpretations, drove a wedge in the relationship that we have with
other animals.
This severance is commented on by Damien Hirst's work Mother and
Child. The halved mother cow and her calf represent the Holy mother
and child, iconic figures of Western Christian art. In traditional art, the
mother and child are often depicted embracing, praised as the
embodiment of the human experience. However, the two cows have
been ripped apart from one another, are housed in independent
tanks and are devoid of life. (Manchester, E., 2009) This conveys
modern attitudes towards the animals that we consume. The way
21
Hirst has presented the cows, innards visible and preserved in
formaldehyde, give them the appearance of meat. Hirst has stated,
"cows are the most slaughtered animals ever... I see them as death
objects. Walking food..." (Quoted by Manchester, E., 2009). Although,
historically, cattle has been a primary food source for the human, our
methods of sourcing the meat has changed drastically, to the point
where they are more often thought of as "walking food" than a living
creature. Domestic breeds of cow are products of human invention;
their evolution has been dictated by selective breeding and they are
designed for eventual slaughter. The viewers who walk through the
two tanks become the metaphorical entity that pulled the cow and her
baby apart. By juxtaposing the two cows with the image of the locked
Holy mother and child, Hirst highlights issues behind our treatment of
animals, by confronting us with our own fears behind "the
impossibility of... retaining an idealised unity" (Manchester, E., 2009).
fig 2.5
22
fig 2.6
Religion caters to such fears by providing answers to existentialist
issues relating to the human experience, such as death and the
meaning of life. This level of self-awareness in humans, apparently
non-existent in other animal species, whose sentience is linked to
"immediate biological impulses" (McDowell, J., p.115), led us to
believe that we were "special", created in divine image and thus
different. Humans were not, it was believed, members of the animal
kingdom. It was not until the uncovering of Upper Paleolithic art in the
19th century, coupled with Darwin presenting his findings on
evoution, that we redefined our purpose in nature (Lewis-Williams,
D., loc.69).
The discovery of evolution led future scientists to realise that,
biologically, humans still share much with our closest animal
23
relatives, the apes. Desmond Morris, in his book The Naked Ape,
explores the human's primitive, animal instincts from a zoological
viewpoint, and how these relate to the behaviours of other apes, all
the while providing a compelling argument that we are, in fact,
members of the ape family.
Nato Thompson states in Becoming Animal, “...the separation
between human and animal diminished from an absolute biological
distinction to an increasingly delicate web of ecological, social and
personal relationships.” (Thompson, N., p.8), however, Morris would
argue that the complex development of our social interactions were
deliberate steps in our unique evolutionary path, designed to help us
adapt to a world on the ground, as opposed to life in the trees. This
makes us, ultimately, masters of animal survival. Our ancestors'
brainpower expanded at a huge rate, just as our physical capabilities
did. One of these adaptions, was the need to become conscious of
ourselves and our surroundings. Consciousness, which developed
into human emotions such as love, was intended to keep family
groups together as the children grew at a far slower rate than those
of the apes that came before. (Morris, D., p.19-38) Given this
reasoning, it is possible that consciousness was a means of survival,
which is the purpose of all animal evolution.
Biologist, photographer and film-maker Hans Hass, argues against
the theory that human behaviour differs from animal behaviour due to
24
the nature of human consciousness. In his book The Human Animal,
Hass documents a series of innate modes, or fixed patterns, of
behaviour in both humans and animals through photography. One
example that Hass documents is yawning, which biologically serves
to synchronise sleeping patterns by creating an infectious effect
among groups of social animals. Another example of innate
behaviour that Hass documented in both humans and invertebrate
animals was watching for predators during a meal. Hass writes,
“Civilized man has long ceased to be in danger of surprise attack by
predators... yet this involuntary movement persists in us too.” (Hass,
H., p.96) Despite evolution abolishing certain characteristics to allow
us to adapt to a specialised human culture, we have not evolved to
forget primal, animal behaviour. Innate actions such as yawning,
flirting and smiling – everyday behaviours associated with human
emotion - have become highly articulated, unconscious rituals
displayed by both humans and animals. (Wilkie Sullivan, C., 2013)
There are a great many anthropological biologists and philosophers
who would argue against Morris' and Hass' writings. Further
exploring philosophical thinking towards human consciousness
versus animal unconsciousness is Ron Broglio, in his book Surface
Encounters: Thinking with Art and Animal. Broglio introduces the
writing by describing phenomenology, a philosophical idea relating to
consciousness, “Traditionally, phenomenology is interested in how
humans are embedded in their world – a world of material things,
25
cultural meanings... [it] is decidedly anthropocentric; it is interested in
how we humans move in the world as we perceive it” (Broglio, R.,
p.xv). Broglio argues that while it believed animals live and think on a
“surface” level, which to philosophers means animals do not have the
depth of thinking that humans do, contemporary artists too work with
surfaces and therefore productivity can arise from combining animal
and art. (Wilkie Sullivan, C., 2013)
Scientific studies made on intelligent animals have raised questions
about this lack of conscious behaviour. Kennedy argues that opinions
have altered regarding social invertebrates, such as apes, because
the “growing complexity of their social groups” is causing the animals
to develop consciousness (Kennedy, p.20). Apes have, for a long
time, blurred the lines between the differences in humans and
animals because of their human-like appearance, ability to use tools
and sophisticated communication methods such as human sign
language. (Wilkie Sullivan C., 2013) This counters the argument
raised by Malia Knezek, who states that our highly developed
language skills, utilised by humans only, made consciousness
possible, inferring that other animals not using these language skills
equates to unconscious behaviour. (Knezek, M., p.208-209) Studies
on groups of primates have revealed human-like levels of relations
and emotion. Similarly to how children learn from their surroundings,
apes used in scientific study have been found to learn behaviour,
outside their normal biological needs, from humans. Modern science
26
is unveiling the secrets of the animal world, showing that animals do
display their own cultures, can integrate with our culture, and are
developing consciousness. The role of the media in giving people
accessibility to natural science, in formats such as photography, film
and documentary, gives artists a wider platform to convey their own
scientific, political or visual ideas, relating to the relationship between
humans and other animals, to an audience.
27
Chapter 3: Becoming Animal
In art, the concept of becoming extends beyond simply replecating
animal behaviours. The artists who explore becoming animal do so to
respond to issues associated with human culture, such as science
and politics, by embracing a new identity. These artists are
concerned with connecting with animals on a non-human level, which
in turn ties the audience's understanding of animal behaviour to that
of their cultured selves. Steve Baker describes such artists as
"postmodern animals", working through performance or presentation
rather than representation (Baker, S., 2001). Through the medium of
performance, these contemporary artists have physically pulled
together nature and culture, creating visual parallels between our
world and the animal kingdom. There is also a common link on the
focus of the domestic animal, especially the dog, which stands as a
biological bridge and blurs the lines between wild and civilised.
28
Pierre Huyghe
I recently visited a restrospective exhibition of works by French
contemporary artist Pierre Huyghe in Museum Ludwig, Cologne. The
exhibition, alive with an ecclectic collection of video, sculpture and
live animal performances, could be described as an assemblage of
ecosystems.
The artist's installation Untilled, one of the main features of the
exhibition, is made up of a garden of "dropped" things, mainly
situated outdoors. A number of the pieces making up the installation
include live animals, such as a hive of bees building around the head
of a nude female sculpture, and a dog with a painted pink leg, named
Human. Regarding Untilled, Huyghe has stated,
"You don’t display things. You don’t make a mise-en-scène, you don’t
design things, you just drop them. And when someone enters that
site, things are in themselves, they don’t have a dependence on the
person. They are indifferent to the public. You are in a place of
indifference. Each thing, a bee, an ant, a plant, a rock, keeps growing
or changing." (Huyghe, P., 2013)
Untilled is described as "non-hierarchical" (Bornus, P., p.10). Each
living thing contained within the space has its own agenda and
purpose, none of which takes precedence. The bees, ceaselessly
building up their autachical society upon the head of the sculpture,
29
have no reason to be concerned by Human, who may be seen
exploring the garden. He knows well enough not to disturb the
territorial bees. The audience, too, know to keep a distance, beyond
the simple reasoning that Untilled is an artwork. Simply by being
present, the audience becomes part of the equilibrium. In the space,
people are no more important than any other living thing, even the
bees that are a semi-domesticated animal. Instead of people
benefitting from the bees' production, the bees are utilising a
manmade, cultural object that symbolises what it means to "be
human". They have turned it from a sculpture in a gallery into a part
of the natural environment. With Untilled, Huyghe has created a
situation where humans and other animals are clear equals, where
there are no boundaries between the natural and the artificial.
fig 3.1
30
The works Zoodram 2 and 4 follow a similar concept. They are
displayed as aquarium tanks and described as "self-contained
worlds" (Bornus, P., p.10) containing a number of marine animals.
The Zoodrams have been set up by the artist in order to observe not
only the interactions of the creatures within them, but how the
animals interact with manmade objects placed inside the tank. A
hermit crab living in a mask sculpted by Constantin Brancusi pulls
together the opposite worlds of nature and culture In the same way
that the bees of Untilled (Reclining Female Nude) do. This is one of
the many scenarios that Huyghe has designed as an ongoing
documentary.
fig 3.2
Many of Huyghe's works are concerned with placing different
organisms - plants, people and other animals - under conditions that
he has constructed, in order to observe how each group reacts and
31
adapts to their given environments. There exists the question of how
each enviroment, often confined to a tank or video screen, flourishes
and changes. Although each of these tiny "worlds" demands
participation from whichever creatures Huyghe decides to place
within them, they remain mostly unaffected by the audience, and thus
untied to the real world, somewhat like a series of alternate universes
that we can observe. This is especially true of many of the artist's
video works, such as The Host and the Cloud in which the notion of
creating a fiction is introduced by the artist and developed by the
participants. The result is a play of sorts that turns the imaginary into
reality.
The Host and the Cloud, not described by the artist as a film, but as
an "experience" or "ritual" (Ramos, F., 2010), takes place inside an
abandoned ethnographic museum. The building, still containing
materials from its days of purpose, becomes the set of a live
experiment, where performers act out "episodes" in response to the
symbolic meanings of Valentines Day, May 1st and Halloween.
As the performers are left to their own devices, their actions become
influenced by their surroundings; the memories of research into past
people and cultures seems to become rekindled by the performers,
who execute animalistic, instinctual behaviours within the closed off
space of the museum building, becoming the subjects that were once
studied inside the building. By removing a group of people from the
32
influences of human culture and society, it allows them to revert into
a more natural state, where withheld truths such as sex and violence
are no longer hidden from one another. Similarly to Huyghe's works
containing animals, this experiment is designed to grow and develop
on its own, having simply been dropped into place by the artist. Thus,
it becomes yet another ecosystem, different to the world that we
humans normally inhabit. It is a new reality, in which people have
been reborn as emotional, instinctual animals. Symbolism and
culture become irrelevant in a place with no societal burdens. The
performers, through their own actions, can dig into deeper, primal,
emotions, such as fear and desire; feelings that have, arguably, been
diminished by the advancement of a sophisticated culture due to the
pressures of being an upstanding citizen.
The Host and the Cloud is another work that shows the interesting
relationship between environment and behaviour. Huyghe has made
clear that, given the right environment, one can discard one's
"humanity", yet still thrive in a wild, animalistic state.
33
fig 3.3
The themes of influence and design prevalent in Huyghe's work
seem to emulate a laboratory: the works feature controlled,
experimental environments, intended to be observed or researched
by an audience. Huyghe becomes a zoologist, studying indefinite
behavioural patterns. One discovers that even the audience are
subjects of Huyghe's narrative design. The way that Huyghe has
constructed the gallery space using a maze of barriers encourages
the visitors to follow a guided path around the exhibition. We too
have been dropped in place; the story unfolds when we choose how
we, the natural, engage with culture. In this respect, we are one in
the same with the performers of The Host and the Cloud, the bees of
Untilled (Reclining Female Nude) and the marine creatures in the
Zoodrams; this work standing as a "symbol for the closed microcosm
of the museum" (Bornus, P., p.13). The defining discovery to be
made with Huyghe's exhibition is that each miniature ecosystem is a
34
microcosm of the macrocosmic gallery space. Because of this, every
human and animal holds equal purpose. Huyghe proves that
regardless of species, our instinctual behaviours are alike, under the
correct circumstances.
As well as focusing on the idea of people becoming animals, like
many artists do, Huyghe has questioned the notion of an animal
becoming human, through the dog named Human. This
metamorphosis of sorts is not obvious visually, as Human is not
anthropomorphised. However, through the observation of Human's
behaviour, we can begin to see similarities in the way we interact with
the world around us.
Human is, uniquely, a rogue within the gallery space. Although he
belongs to Untilled, he is not confined to the parameters of the
installation, and thus becomes his own artwork. He is free to wander
leisurely, leaving pawprints in piles of sand or curling up on beds of
fur scattered throughout the gallery. In an exhibition teeming with
containers and boundaries, the freedom displayed by the dog is as
eye-catching as his painted leg. Human represents the side of us that
thirsts to leave our mark on things that perhaps should remain
untouched. In the same way that we have tampered with the natural
world around us, so too has Human damaged the perfection that we
associate with gallery spaces; galleries being areas that belong very
much to the civilised being. Human may also symbolise our
35
evolutionary development. The other organisms of Untilled are
mostly concerned with survival. However, Human does not follow this
pattern. He more interested in exploring his surroundings, a trait that
seperated us from other animals thousands of years ago. A sense of
balance arises, as the dog's actions reflect our own behaviours
outside our societal habitat. Perhaps by naming the dog Human,
Huyghe is encouraging us to call ourselves Animal.
fig 3.4
36
Oleg Kulik
Oleg Kulik is a Russian performance artist best known for works such
as The Mad Dog and I Bite America and America Bites Me, in which
he assumes the role of a dog; naked, crawling on all fours and
sleeping in cages, much of the time being led around on a chain.
These live performances are executed in public spaces, allowing the
audience to directly confront the artist in his animal persona. Where
Huyghe's Human is the animal assuming a role of a person, Kulik
has taken the opposite approach. However, both works are intended
to challenge our ideals regarding human society. Kulik's work is a
highly political response to his misgivings about Russian culture,
from issues such as the corrupt art market, Russian election politics
and the capital punishment laws introduced in the 1990s (Williams,
D., 2007). Kulik's actions personify him as Russia, which is in turn
represented by the artist a dog. According to Williams, many of
Kulik's performances express the relationship between Eastern and
Western Europe, who view Russia as "a deprived, unsophisticated,
mongrel “other” that is charming as long as it remains passive,
submissive, excluded, and doesn’t bite back." (Williams, D., 2007)
Kulik's explanation behind his process is, “...standing on hands and
knees is a conscious falling out of a human horizon, connected with a
feeling of the end of anthropocentrism, with a crisis of not just
contemporary art but contemporary culture on the whole.” (Kulik, O.,
p.44). Standing upright is recognisably human; by lowering oneself
37
"out of a human horizon", one reverts back into an animal state and
thus maintains a different viewpoint, literally and figuratively. Kulik
chooses to adopt the quadrapedal position of a dog, simplifiying his
emotional responses, in order to comment on the boundaries of
Russian culture which he believes is caused by "...an overly refined
cultural language which creates barriers between individuals." (Anon,
no date)
fig 3.5
Kulik taking on the guise of a dog may also relate to the idea that
culture formed when man no longer needed to rely on their sense of
smell (Salecl, p.14). The dog is known to have a superior sense of
smell to humans; Kulik's idea seems to be to raise himself above
cultural boundaries by symbolically reconnecting with wild,
superhuman abilities. This links to shamanistic desires associated
38
with recognising a totem animal. Perhaps Kulik is projecting his own
totem and thus becomes emblematic of the nation of Russia.
By rejecting his physical ties to culture, Kulik's work has been
“...regarded as indecent within elite cultural spaces and inside the
borders of real art.” (Bredikhina, M., p.8). The state of being naked,
bound and confined to a cage are, ideologically, closely related to
acts of torture and sexual taboo. The image of a man on all fours
suggests that he is submissive and of lower status. This highlights
the distinction between human to human relations, particularly within
conflicting nations. Kulik's actions also suggest the idea of human
superiority over other animals; according to cultural dictations, when
a person performs in such a way it is “indecent”, however a pet dog's
entire existence may revolve around being naked, chained and
caged. The saying “the dog looks up at you” also implies the idea of it
being a lesser creature with blind loyalty, similar to a slave. However,
Kulik's work is empowering and intends to highlight the remarkable
instincts of the animal which we, as cultured citizens, have lost
awareness of. (Wilkie Sullivan, C., 2013)
As Nato Thompson writes in Becoming Animal, a person saying “'We
were treated like animals'... positions the becoming animal as the
lowest form of human existence... In political terms it would mean to
revoke a person's basic human rights.” (Thompson, N., p.13) The
criticism of Kulik's work strengthens this argument. As it is debated
39
that animals lack consciousness, they are often referred to as
“dumb”, and are thus exploited. This mindset may also apply to
hierarchical treatment of other humans. People who are oppressed
under racial or religious discrimination are often branded as “animals”
and the idea that they do not have a conscious is used offensively.
Because of this, it is apparent why artists concerned with becoming
animal are segregated from “real art”, as artists are associated with
being an elite class. (Wilkie Sullivan, C., 2013) As explored with
Huyghe's work, the gallery or 'elitist space', culturally houses
humans.
fig 3.6
The work I Bite America and America Bites Me references Joseph
Beuys' work I Like America and America Likes Me, with an updated
commentary on America's cultural state. In this work, Kulik's dog-
40
state appears to be expressing America's "anti-intellectualism" (Silas,
S. no date). Confined to a cage and acting aggressively towards
visitors, this dog emulates the coyote in Beuys' project. The coyote is
one of America's native totemic animals, and in the action, Beuys
plays the role of shaman. In Beuys' performance, he wished for the
coyote to be his only experience of America, which represents the
natural wilderness of the continent before the "white men" damaged
the land and cultures. (tate.org, no date) Like Human, the presence
of the coyote challenges the cultural boundaries of a gallery space
and the limitations of what is displayed inside. The coyote literally
defecates on society, reflecting the disregard that we had for the
species. This ritual, combining the energies of the wild with the
symbolic regulations of civilisation, was intended to heal the wounds
caused by the overthrowing of native America and restore balance
between the two cultures.
fig 3.7
41
The success of Kulik's attempts to become the coyote are
questioned. In A Love Letter to Oleg Kulik, regarding I Bite America
and America Bites Me, Susan Silas writes,
"You look threatening... Now your face is a few inches from mine and
you are snarling. A dog that close -- you'd feel it's hot breath on your
face. If you were my sister's Doberman acting like this -- I would be
afraid. I don't keep pets myself. But I would keep you. And that, it
seems to me, is conclusive proof... that you are not an animal... you
are -- quite simply -- a man." (Salis, S., no date)
Salis' criticisms reinforce that manifesting physically into a specific
animal using our given bodies is not the same as becoming animal.
However, Kulik's dog actions are merely symbolic. The real
metamorphosis happens when Kulik stops being an upright, clothed,
linguistic, cultured human, drops to the floor and starts barking a
strange, unintelligible language. Becoming animal is becoming un-
human.
42
Kathy High
To return to parity with the animal, artists such as Kathy High and
Joseph Beuys have been shown to engage with animals on a
personal level. Both High and Beuys featured in the exhibition book
Becoming Animal, the artists of which “are linked by an intense focus
on the philosophical, medical, biological and ethical connections that
bind us to [animals]” (Thompson, N., p.8). High in particular, focuses
on how the human experience intertwines with the domestic lives of
her pet dogs and cats. She questions with notions of both human and
animal life and death, which she chooses to find answers to through
tarot and psychics, documenting these rituals by filming home-style
videos. (Thompson, N,. p.60) By including the pets in these
existential practices, linked to the human condition as previously
discussed, High is highlighting that death concerns all animal life. We
tend to be more interested in the wellbeings of animals that we have
close bonds to, such as pets, which are integrated members of our
own family groups and thus are viewed as being more human. High
includes her own health worries in her works, but as the camera is
always focused on her pets, she speaks only as an epathatic voice,
and her ailments become that of the animal.
43
fig 3.8
Further exploring biological issues in both humans and animals is the
work Embracing Animal, which explores the balance in human-
animal relations between the artist and her two rats, Echo and
Flowers. Both the artist and the rats have suffered from human
illness. The two lab rats carried human DNA, injected into them in
order to test diseases, giving the rats human attributes on an
invasive, unnatural level. Thompson highlights the relationship
between rat and human by writing, “Echo and Flowers were not
simply becoming human, they had become integrally locked in a
genetic relationship with humanity” (Thompson, p.10). High's work
explores the transformation of animal to human and human to
animal through links created by genetics and science. It also
explores the blurring of lines between species. When a rat carries our
DNA, what continues to make it animal? (Wilkie Sullivan, C., 2013)
44
The countless laboratory studies carried out on rats, intended to
investigate the human body, medically and psychologically, turns the
rats into humans, meaning people, such as the artist, metamorphose
into rats. Since this interrelationship is mainly based on exploitation
of the animal, however, the artist's concern is to present the rats as
having the same rights of humans.
This being said, High has stated that her work does not intend to
convey the pet animals that she works with as "little humans", but
rather as non-human. The presented animal becomes a
representational extension of a person (High, K., p.66), just as artists
becoming animal or non-human extend their own selves. This
statement is to argue the theory raised by Steve Baker that artists
working with animals are often sentimental about their subjects; the
closeness that we feel with animal subjects may offer an uncritical
view of their lives as we anthropomorphise them, consciously twisting
behaviours into that of a human (Baker, S., p.166). However, Baker
continues to argue that in many cases, we "can learn learn things
from [animals] that are not easily learned anywhere else" (Baker, S.,
2001).
45
fig 3.9
As we begin to accept the similarities between humans and animals,
we must embrace the animal's place; not as a tool, but as a subject
that we can work and explore behavioural meaning with. Many of the
artists discussed in this dissertation challenge philosophical ideas,
such as the concept of phenomenology discussed by Broglio, who
states that we must “...take the negative claim of animals living on
the surface without cultural or individual depth of being and turn the
premise into a positive set of possibilities for human-animal
engagement” (Broglio, p.xix).
46
Conclusion
Regardless of whether we view ourselves as animals or not, our
place in nature and our relationships with animals changed when
humans developed something that no other animal had at that point:
culture. Cave art was what marked the beginning of this culture. This
innovation turned us from simple hunter-gatherers, surviving in the
same ways as all other animals did, into the highly intelligent, highly
conscious, cultured beings that we are today. Cave art influenced
anatomical art, and the symbolic representations of animals that we
know today.
Art and culture have continued to shape our perspectives on what it
means to be human, what it means to be animal, and perhaps even
how we can be both. Art as an early form of science began to explore
how various animal behaviours, including our own, linked together.
Representations of the animal, integrated in our historical cultures,
remind us that basic animal behaviours can teach us important
lessons about strength, freedom and love, deepening our
understanding of the human experience.
Both sides of the existentialist debate argue that we are more
advanced than even the most intelligent animals. Our rapid
advancements with technology and culture continue to pull us further
away from even our closest ape relatives. Although we may never
47
fully accept that we and other animals hold equal importance upon
the planet, we cannot suggest that animals will never develop our
level of culture, when it has been observed that some show basic
levels of consciousness, just as we did thousands of years ago.
Many respond to human teachings. Animals will evolve to adapt what
they need to survive and many animals are adapting to human
cultures.
The role of art in exploring our relationship with other animals is to
allow the artist and the audience to better understand our biological,
behavioural links. Through a broader understanding of other animals,
we learn about our own natures. Art inspired the humanities, such as
philosophy and anthropology; in turn artists have drawn inspritation
from theoretical writings in order to fully explore thinking behind our
animal relationships. Since the times of artists merely representing
the animal image, the concepts of the postmodern animal have come
full circle; presenting the animal answers many of the questions
about the missing links between human civilisation and the natural
world by bridging the gaps formed by culture. This takes us back to a
time when becoming animal was the cultural norm. It also shows that
galleries which stand as physical manifestations of cultures that
seperate us from animals are merely social constructs that do not
reflect on our instinctual, animal behaviours. When a beast is in a
gallery, the seperations between humans and other animals dissolve.
48
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