ARTH 512
Why Look at Animals? Animality in Contemporary Art Fall 2024
Division I

This seminar considers the so-called “animal turn” in contemporary art, in which more and more artists have taken nonhuman animals seriously in their work. Animals have long appeared in art as mere objects–to possess, consume, or symbolize with–rather than as subjects endowed with specific forms of intelligence, agency, or cross-species kinship. In this course we will analyze the work of artists who represent, emulate, or even collaborate with nonhuman animals, practices that take on particular urgency against the present backdrop of mass extinction. We will pay special attention to indigenous artistic practices and intersectional approaches to the burgeoning, multidisciplinary field of animal studies. Along the way, we will discuss animal ethics, the Anthropocene, and posthumanism, among other topics.