Art and Animals

Imagination Laboratory: Making Sense of Bio-Objects in Contemporary Genetic Art

“…Modern technological development goes hand in hand with cultural comments. Eduard Kac's glowing bunny Alba is a well-known example of art that comments on transgenic technologies (Aloi, 2012; Wolfe, 2006). Alba can be seen as an offspring of cultural articulations like Shelley's Frankenstein and Huxley's Brave New World.…”

“…It invites us to the idea that humans are neither as special as we like to think, nor are we separated from other species. This effect is created first through showing that genetically modified life is something more-than-objects, creating an ‘uncomfortable closeness’ (Aloi, 2012: 68). Second, through this move, Piccinini puts these objects within the context of a bio-technological evolution, and a widened ecological narrative.…”

“…Genetic art can in itself be produced through DNA technologies or by use of more traditional artistic materials and expressions (eg sculptures). For the present study, we consider genetic art works as sites for reflections on biotechnologies, ‘appropriating modern science as a tool for generating social narratives’ (Aloi, 2012: 77). In order to potentially vitalize debates on new biotechnologies, we also employ Bennett's notion of ‘enchantment’ and the importance of wonder and openness to the unusual in order to be ‘struck and shaken’ (Bennett, 2001: 4).…”

‘Sauvé du déluge des jours’ : Taxidermy, photography and literature in Adrien Goetz and Karen Knorr’s Le Soliloque de l’empailleur

“…However, it has to be pointed out that this revival of taxidermy is not a hollow trend but a highly intriguing and layered revisionist phenomenon. (Aloi, 2012: 26)…”

“…Just as Knorr’s Fables call into question the functioning of the fable as a genre, the ‘revisionist’ aspect of this use of taxidermied animals problematises the nineteenth-century view of taxidermy as ‘the manifestation of the subjugation of nature that man alone is capable of’ (Aloi, 2012: 27). Aloi notes that in the Fables set in the Musée Carnavalet (which showcases the history of Paris and various styles of interior design in sample rooms dating from different periods), the positioning of these taxidermied creatures in the museum space creates a kind of modern diorama and generates tension between human culture (the museum) and nature (the animals): ‘In these images, the painted landscape of the natural-history display has been replaced by the wallpapers and furniture of this neoclassical museum – the rationalised (neoclassical architecture) and irrational (animal) are here at odds’ (2012: 29).…”