No Federal or State Laws Against the Use of Live Animals in Art
In 1947 Joseph Beuys iconic performance artwork I Love America and America Loves Me was created. In it, Beuys locked himself in a room with a wild coyote for 8 hours a day for three days straight, with only a blanket of felt between them.
It is a powerful, heart-pounding performance, one which questioned Americans treatment of its land and people. My first thought when I saw the photos...Did that coyote have water?
I will probably never know what happened to that coyote, or how its time in that room with Beuys affected its future. But it leaves me wanting knowledge about its treatment, and who is responsible for an animal when it becomes a test subject for art?
There are many laws that interfere with the use of animals in art, for example, endangered species remains are prohibited for being sold. This is meant to discourage the killing of rare animals for the sake of creating art. Something that has been done for centuries by using objects like feathers and ivory to create beautiful and intricate sculptures, paintings, or clothing. Although this may seem to be an act of the past, the use of animals can be found in contemporary art. (https://www.fws.gov/midwest/eagle/protect/laws.html)
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| Joseph Beuys, I Love America and America Loves me 1947 |
It is a powerful, heart-pounding performance, one which questioned Americans treatment of its land and people. My first thought when I saw the photos...Did that coyote have water?
I will probably never know what happened to that coyote, or how its time in that room with Beuys affected its future. But it leaves me wanting knowledge about its treatment, and who is responsible for an animal when it becomes a test subject for art?
There are many laws that interfere with the use of animals in art, for example, endangered species remains are prohibited for being sold. This is meant to discourage the killing of rare animals for the sake of creating art. Something that has been done for centuries by using objects like feathers and ivory to create beautiful and intricate sculptures, paintings, or clothing. Although this may seem to be an act of the past, the use of animals can be found in contemporary art. (https://www.fws.gov/midwest/eagle/protect/laws.html)
In the Museum of Modern Art New York collections, you can find Robert Rauschenberg's Canyon, a superb contemporary artwork which contains, among other mixed media, a taxidermied bald eagle.
Robert Rauschenberg, Canyon, 1959, Oil, pencil, paper, metal, photograph, fabric, wood, canvas, buttons, mirror, taxidermied eagle, cardboard, pillow, paint tube, and other materials 81 3/4 x 70 x 24" (207.6 x 177.8 x 61 cm)
As you can imagine, this artwork has had many complications with its acquisition, appraisal, and preservation.
Conservators must consider not only the task of maintaining the art materials used in the work, they also have to keep insects and rot away from the flesh of the eagle. It cannot be appraised nor technically hold any value as there is no option for selling or trading the work, yet for the art world it is no doubt worth millions.
Although these endangered species are protected, there are no specific laws against the use of live animals in art. This has led to an interesting ethical discussion in the art world on what is acceptable and what is considered cruelty for the sake of art. There have been numerous cases of protests against exhibitions which many considered crossing that line into cruelty.
In 2017 the Guggenheim Museum in New York City removed three pieces from an exhibition titled "Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World," which depicted, among other artworks, a video of dogs forced to run on treadmills until exhaustion, pictures of tattooed pigs mating, and live lizards fighting for survival in a glass tank amongst other creatures.
Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, "Dogs That Cannot Touch Each Other", Video, 2003
These specific pieces were pulled from the show due to protests of animal cruelty. These protests and the Guggenheims reactions to it raised the issue of avoiding the repression artistic expression, while also doing what is morally right. Who should decide what is protected and what is not, based on an artist's right to free speech? What constitutes cruelty in a society that is constantly pushing the boundaries of art?
There is a fair comparison of the use of animals in art to the use of animals in science. The 1966 Animal Welfare Act was created to ensure the basic care for animals which are transported, exhibited, and tested on. Most of the fine print within the act is focused on research facitlities and their acquistion, treatment, and disposal of animals. The point is to ensure basic needs are met-yet we can see in all these industries (agricultural, big-pharma, and yes--art) that these needs are not always met.
Perhaps the public forum of the art world is the perfect place to set the expectations for animal treatment, or perhaps it is the worst place. In the end, it is the public which controls the morals of institutions. Perhaps soon there will be Federal and State laws specifically for the use of live animals in art.
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| Joseph Beuys, I Love America and America Loves me 1947 |
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