The Animal Gaze

A group exhibition, touring to two cities: London: Unit 2 Gallery, Unit 6 Gallery and Metropolitan Works at London Metropolitan University, 18/11/08-12/12/08 Plymouth: The Roland Levinsky Gallery, Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery and Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World at Exeter. A group show of the work of forty artists across several venues, which acts as a survey of the work of artists addressing the relationship between animals and humans in the twenty first century. The Animal Gaze was an event developed from practice-led university research in fine art. The intention was academic: to exhibit and examine new ways in which animals appear in contemporary art and the contingent ethics and aesthetics to which such practice may be subject. The curatorial policy of The Animal Gaze was to avoid representations of animals which regularly appear elsewhere in the visual culture of our own species: ie, no animals as decoration, nor status symbols and vehicles for ancient mythology or totemic ritual. Any objects of affective or pathetic fallacy on display here were unconventional. Much was omitted - general animal portraiture and wildlife studies, anthropomorphs, regular animal/human hybrids and ironies around stuffed toys – questions already asked and answered over the years. Instead, The Animal Gaze showed stances outside anthropocentrism, deconstructions of species taxonomy, constructions of the idea of difference and documentation of the consequences of indifference. At the same time, these works about animals and humans perhaps confirmed a trend discernible in recent art - an ascendancy of meaning or ambiguity over ineffability and surface, a move away from the gigantic, as well as more evidence of the profile afforded now to artist collaboration and cross-disciplinary research. Artists: Daniel Andersson, Angela Bartram, Sarah Beddington, Catherine Bell, Suky Best, Stephanie Black, Andrew Bracey, Mary Britton Clouse, Rich Broomhall, Chloë Brown, Paul Bush, Mircea Cantor, Marcus Coates, Nicky Coutts, Roz Cran, Matilda Downs, Roswitha von der Driesch & Jens-Uwe Dyffort, Tessa Farmer, Kate Foster, Hayden Fowler, Kathy High, Kate James, Jacob Cartwright & Nick Jordan, Cathryn Jiggens, Jo Longhurst, Kate MccGwire, Rosemarie McGoldrick, Aurelia Mihai, Daniel Mijic, Roz Mortimer, Melody Owen, Nicola Oxley, Kate Potter, Barbara Rauch, Andrea Roe, Claire Rousell, Clara Rueprich, Helen Sear, Snaebjornsdottir/Wilson, Miranda Whall, Martin White. Curated by Rosemarie McGoldrick Chloë Brown showed the film, 'Dear One' and the installation, 'They Abide and They Endure'.