Maine State Library Maine State Documents Academic Research and Dissertations Special Collections 2015 Animals, Ethics, and Aesthetics: Expanding Lexicons Joni Doherty IDSVA Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalmaine.com/academic Recommended Citation Doherty, Joni, "Animals, Ethics, and Aesthetics: Expanding Lexicons" (2015). Academic Research and Dissertations. Book 12. http://digitalmaine.com/academic/12 This Text is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Collections at Maine State Documents. It has been accepted for inclusion in Academic Research and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Maine State Documents. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ANIMALS, ETHICS, AND AESTHETICS: EXPANDING LEXICONS Joni Doherty Submitted to the faculty of The Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy October 2014 Accepted by the faculty of the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts in partial fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ______________________________ Lynette Hunter, Ph.D. Doctoral Committee ______________________________ Other member’s name, #1 Ph.D. ______________________________ Other member’s name, #2, Ph.D. October 8, 2014 ii © 2014 Joni Doherty ALL RIGHTS RESERVED iii [I]t is clear that there is no classification of the Universe not being arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what thing the universe is . We are allowed to go further; we can suspect that there is no universe in the organic, unifying sense that this ambitious term has. If there is a universe, its aim is not conjectured yet; we have not yet conjectured the words, the definitions, the etymologies, the synonyms, — Jorge Luis Borges “I prefer it ‘open.’” — Lynette Hunter iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is always an illusion to think that a work has only one author. This page is my effort to correct this misperception. Here I recognize the contributions of others, some intentionally, some by chance. I am grateful for all of the following: 1. IDSVA, for creating this interdisciplinary program in philosophy and art; 2. The lovely Beverly Philosophical Salon and the seekers found there; 3. The wood stove in winter, the back porch in summer: all helped to quiet the urge to wander away from the work at hand; 4. In the face of yet another curious and untimely undertaking, the Doherty family’s ethic of unquestioning loyalty; 5. Christine Destrempes, for travelling with me along the path of public participatory art-making, art-thinking, art-sharing; 6. The Purr Babes, Olive and the Olivettes, the Nema, and all of those other beloved companions (the so-called wild ones too), both past and present; 7. Mary Hop Brandon, Christine Distempers, Noel Greiner, and Stephanie Wells — for steadfast friendship and hospitality too long unreciprocated, 8. Sarah Miller, such a good listener, who knows how to ask the good questions and to get me to play; 9. Generations of chickadees, rose breasted grosbeaks, cardinals, blue jays, pine siskins, cat birds, tufted titmice, nut hatches, and doves for their charming interruptions (chipmunks, squirrels, mice, and voles should also be noted); 10. My sister Patty Miller, for doing more than her share in caring for us all and giving me the gift of time; 11. Pepino Noir, whose greetings after my absences equaled the joy of Ulysses’ dog, but with a happier end; 12. All of the time and space offered by the Kettering Foundation over the years, to think, question, and deliberate with so very many very fine colleagues; 13. Molly Haas, whose wit, wisdom, and editorial skills helped me along at a critical time; 14. The magnificent Reinhold, a steadfast companion who stayed for longer than was possible; 15. The steady guidance, incisive questions, and intellectual generosity of Lynette Hunter, who made this possible. Your way is so spacious, so focused, so clear. 16. Et cetera, in the best possible sense, for all that goes unnamed and unsaid. v ABSTRACT This dissertation considers the ways in which artists working with living animals articulate the complex and paradoxical nature of human-animal relationships. The examples used are from signature moments in the more recent past, with an emphasis the interactions of contemporary European and American artists. Works considered include circus acts, natural history dioramas, and pieces by Bartabas, Joseph Beuys, Carolyn Carlson, Catherine Chalmers, Hubert Duprat, David Nita Little, Joanna Mendl Shaw, and David Wojnarowicz. Various discursive and knowledge systems are at play in these works, and affect how the animals are treated and how they are represented. This project also challenges the cultural construction we call nature. Much effort has been put into avoiding the hazards of positivism, duality, and relativism. In spite of the inevitably limiting cultural and historical constraints, my aim is to generate some usable knowledge that informs how we understand the languages of art and philosophy and engage with systems of knowledge, especially as it concerns our ethical and aesthetic relationships with animals, including other humans. vi Combining artistic and deconstructive practices within the theoretical framework of situated textualities reveals the richly complex yet tenuous nature of our relationships. The art works considered here express misunderstandings, tensions, connections, and the potential for transformation, sometimes simultaneously. Deconstruction is used as a prism to reveal a spectrum of insights, where what once seemed familiar now points toward the unknown, ignored, or overlooked. Situated textualities, which insists that a complex matrix of practices, materials, beings, and contexts must also be taken into account, offers openings for tacit and sensory ways of knowing, which both complement and resist the limits of rational analysis. My theoretical approach is influenced by the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin, Matthew Calarco, Jacques Derrida, Donna Haraway, Lynette Hunter, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jakob Von Uexküll and, of course, by the artists whose work is considered here. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1. Relationships and Responsibilities ......................................................... 4 2. A “Natural” History ............................................................................. 12 3. Reasons for Caring ............................................................................... 22 4. Chapter Summaries ............................................................................... 25 A. Skin Deep: Collecting Animals ............................................... 25 B. Representing Relationship: Framing the Animal .................... 34 C. Means to an End: The Symbolic Animal ................................ 40 D. Object or Actor: An Insect Aesthetic ...................................... 47 E. Biophilia, Biophobia: Situated Animals ................................. 63 F. Leaving the Field: Being with Animals ................................... 79 5. Questions to Consider ........................................................................... 92 Chapter 1. Skin Deep: Collecting Animals ........................................................... 94 1. Object Lessons .................................................................................... 96 2. Recreating Eden ................................................................................ 107 3. Resurrection of the Dead .................................................................. 108 viii 4. Doomed Anyway .............................................................................. 112 5. The Giant of Karisimbi ..................................................................... 118 6. Giving Permission ............................................................................. 122 7. The Haunts of Animals ..................................................................... 127 8. Beyond “Wordy” .............................................................................. 132 Chapter 2. Representing Relationship: Framing the Animal .............................. 136 1. Ruler of Nature, Lord of the Wild .................................................... 136 2. The Linguistic Abyss ........................................................................ 140 3. Wild, Domestic, Tame, Feral, Exotic ............................................... 142 4. The Early Modern Circus Horse ....................................................... 146 5. The Way Things Work ...................................................................... 156 6. Creating Oppositions ........................................................................ 161 7. The Comedy Horse ........................................................................... 164 8. The Liberty Horse ............................................................................. 176 9. Savage Behavior ............................................................................... 178 Chapter 3. Means to an End: The Symbolic Animal .......................................... 180 1. Art, Action, and Animals ................................................................. 182 2. The Coyote from New Jersey ........................................................... 184 3. Colonizing the Coyote ....................................................................