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Animals in Art: A Moral Dilemma?

Phoebe Lewis
Write About Art 4
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‘“Art is continually haunted by the animal”, wrote Deleuze and Guattari in their final book, What is Philosophy?’ (Baker, 2001). In recent years, taxidermied animals or castings of animal corpses have become common ghosts that haunt the contemporary art gallery (Aloi, 2011). But more controversial is the use of the animal whose death is yet to be announced—the use of live animals in art. For centuries, the bristles of a hog have been used to craft fine paintbrushes (Le Monnier, 2010); but contemporary art has created a new relationship with the animal: it is now the breathing body which is being used as the material. And since the animal seldom arrives in the gallery of its own accord, great debate has ensued regarding moral issues surrounding the artist’s treatment of their ‘material’ (Baker, 2001). This has generated an ethical grey area and raises the question: at what point should human creativity cease and animal rights prevail?
It would appear that the line separating the acceptable from the intolerable in the use of animals in art is somewhat ambiguous and has been the subject of great confusion amongst both artists and the general public. In some cases, the involvement of animals may be used to challenge the ethics of the audience; Marco Evaristti exercised this principle in 2000 when he installed ten blenders filled with water and a live fish and invited the audience to ‘press the button’ (Galperina, 2012). The viewer became an arbiter over life and death; the temptation to break one’s boundaries and become a part of the interactive work forced audience members to consider their moral stance (Evaristti, 2012).
In 2006, Banksy engaged an elephant to symbolise... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Banksy, Barely Legal Art Show, Downtown Los Angeles, 15 September, 2006. Photo Rebecca Sapp (WireImage), 2006. Courtesy Getty Images.

Banksy, Barely Legal Art Show, Downtown Los Angeles, 15 September, 2006. Photo Rebecca Sapp (WireImage), 2006. Courtesy Getty Images.
 

Eduardo Kac, GFP Bunny, 2000. Transgenic artwork. Alba, the fluorescent rabbit. Courtesy Black Box Gallery, Copenhagen

Eduardo Kac, GFP Bunny, 2000. Transgenic artwork. Alba, the fluorescent rabbit. Courtesy Black Box Gallery, Copenhagen