Animals in art as individuals and not symbols

PRESENTATION

Room A + online

Fri, 05.09.2025  11:40-12:20  Central European Time (CET)

As a basic rule, the subject is the person or thing doing something. The object is having something done to it. For millennia, non-human animals have been portrayed in art as merely living things – objects that represent human emotions, status, political discourse, and other social themes. Contemporary artists portraying animals in their works are often categorized as anthropomorphizing them. Yet, this anthropocentric term is indicative of yet another blatant way that we exclude all non-human animals from a more biocentric approach – where equal inherent value is extended to all living things. And thus, all animals are capable of emotions and feeling simply the same way that we as human animals are inherently capable of them; and not because we are comparing animals to humans. How can we successfully convey this inert value of any animal's life in contemporary art? Especially, with concern of creating animal rights/vegan artwork?