Animals have always been compelling subjects for artists; but the rise of animal advocacy and posthumanist thought has prompted a reconsideration of the relationship between artist and animal. In this book; Steve Baker examines the work of contemporary artists who directly confront questions of animal life; treating animals not for their aesthetic qualities or as symbols of the human condition but rather as beings who actively share the world with humanity.The concerns of the artists presented in this bookmdash;Sue Coe; Eduardo Kac; Lucy Kimbell; Catherine Chalmers; Olly and Suzi; Angela Singer; Catherine Bell; and othersmdash;range widely; from the ecological to the philosophical and from those engaging with the modification of animal bodies to those seeking to further the cause of animal rights. Drawing on extensive interviews he conducted with the artists under consideration; Baker explores the vital contribution that contemporary art can make to a broader conception of animal life; emphasizing the importance of creativity and trust in both the making and understanding of these artworks.Throughout; Baker is attentive to issues of practice; form; and medium. He asks; for example; whether the animal itself could be said to be the medium in which these artists are working; and he highlights the tensions between creative practice and certain kinds of ethical demands or expectations. Featuring full-color; vivid examples of their work; Artist Animal situates contemporary artists within the wider project of thinking beyond the human; asserting artrsquo;s power to open up new ways of thinking about animals.
#1582774 in eBooks 2013-06-06 2013-06-06File Name: B00D1Z536W
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. It is a junglehellip;By John P. Jones IIIhellip; and not a ldquo;rainforest.rdquo; I recently read my first play by Bertolt Brecht; "The Three Penny Opera"; which I had seen performed about two decades earlier. ; as is its custom; recommended another of his plays; one that I had never heard of; and I decided to take them up on their recommendation.ldquo;Saint Joanrdquo; was written as the Great Depression began to hammer the Weimar Republic. The play was never produced until 1959; after Brechtrsquo;s death in 1956; when Germany was in its post-war economic ldquo;miraclerdquo; phase; what the French would call ldquo;the thirty glorious years;rdquo; so the play never quite resonated with the public. It is very hard not to think of Upton Sinclairrsquo;s The Jungle (Dover Thrift Editions) written in 1907; which I have read twice; four decades apart; concerning life in Chicagorsquo;s stockyards; when reading Brechtrsquo;s play. Sinclairrsquo;s work is referenced twice in the lengthy introduction; which is almost 10% of the length of this volume.The two principal characters are Joan Dark; a 25-year old member of the ldquo;Black Straw Hatsrdquo; (read: The Salvation Army) and Pierpont Mauler; the owner capitalist who demonstrates more empathy for the cattle that are to be killed than the workers who do the killing and processing. (ldquo;For steers I feel compassion. Man is evil.rdquo;) The names themselves imply a bit too heavy handed black and white stereotype; and the action has a cardboard element to it. Mauler is running around; cornering markets; driving down the price of labor; driving up the price of cattle; creating financial crisis; starving workers; et al. On further reflection; at least this reader thought: how ldquo;heavy handedrdquo; is this really? There is this self-destructive element embedded in the ldquo;rules of the economic game;rdquo; and didnrsquo;t we just go through that; yet again; in 2008? Ah; is this what Schumpeter had in mind?Shakespearersquo;s plays have been described as a series of quotes that are still relevant today. After perhaps a bit too much toing and froing between the forces of good (Dark!) and the forces of evil (Mauler); Brecht cuts loose with some zinger quotes towards the end of the play; that resonate in todayrsquo;s headlines. A labor leader addresses the police who are ldquo;maintaining orderrdquo;: ldquo;Penniless yourselves; you help the wealthy; because you havenrsquo;t yet glimpsed the possibility of helping the penniless.rdquo; Concerning our exiting President who raised hopes behind the banner of change; Brecht made a stinging assessment almost three quarters of a century ago: ldquo;For nothing; however good it looks; should be termed good unless it really helps; and nothing counted honourable but what irrevocably changes the world; which is in need of change. I was just what the oppressors wanted! Oh; inconsequential goodness! Oh; negligible virtue! I changed nothing; soon to vanish fruitlessly from this world.rdquo;So; Brecht might have been ldquo;datedrdquo; in 1959 Germany; but not today. A couple more caustic evaluation on the way things are by St. Joan: ldquo;And the baseness of those on top is beyond measure.rdquo; ldquo;And those preachers who tell the people they can rise in spirit; Even if their bodies are stuck in the mud; they too should have their heads bashed against the sidewalk. The truth is that where force rules only force can help and in the human world only humans can help.rdquo;As a side note about this play and Brecht; I learned about Carola Neher; the German actress that Brecht wanted to play the part of Joan. She had to flee Germany when Hitler came to power; seeking refuge in the Soviet Union. She wound up on the wrong side of another ideological divide there; being labeled a ldquo;Trotskyite.rdquo; She was imprisoned in a camp in Siberia; where she died at the age of 42; in 1942. Brecht was criticized for not speaking out in her defense. And he was subsequently criticized for testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the late lsquo;40rsquo;s; when others refused. An element of ldquo;inconsequential goodnessrdquo; in his character. Overall; 4-stars for St. Joan.