Java.July.2016

ARTS
THE NEW ANIMIST
By Amy L. Young
Animism is the age-old belief that non-human
entities, like animals, plants and rivers, can have
a soul or spiritual essence. For those who hold
this belief, it affects how they perceive and treat
elements of the natural environment. Though the
unfortunate continued disregard and decimation of
elements from our natural world is part of daily life,
awareness continues to grow, with a growing list of
advocates to foster change.
The New Animist, an exhibition at ASU Art Museum
created by Kev Nemelka, presents pieces from the
museum’s permanent collection that highlight an
elevated level of eco-awareness while also outlining
how animist beliefs parallel the collective concern
for our present-day environment. In keeping with
today’s meta-oriented culture, the show itself serves
to promote a strengthened relationship with nature
that occurs from the use of many non-natural means
to facilitate knowledge, and thereby action.
When you look at a piece like sculptor Deborah
Butterfi eld’s Horse #2, it’s easy to see how it can
inherently provoke an emotional human response.
Composed from wood, tin, metal and rubber, it’s not
just the horse’s loose and patchy frame that gives
this piece a sense of distress but the way it rests, as
if it crumbled to the ground from sheer exhaustion.
With the body ringed by a rubber tire, this work pulls
no punches as it creates an obvious look at man’s
destruction of the natural world.
Karl Appel’s figurative abstract painting Untitled
(Animal and Figure) uses a bold and minimal palette
to bring together a man and an animal. Big strokes
and stern outlining create a sense of both solidarity
and similarity that examines the uniqueness of
human–animal interactions and bonds. It definitely
inspires broader thought on the different ways
animals factor into human lives on a global level.
Arthur W. Hahn’s On the Rocks is a chalk and pastel
work on paper that offers a back view of a human
fi gure sitting on rocks, its mood alluding to a lake
or beach scene. The curves and cuts of the minimal
portion of the body match the sharp edges and the
fi ner, rounder sides of the rocks. As one gets lost in
the other, the indentations of the musculature, along
with the hint of bone, also exemplify the sameness
found in both subjects.
Whether they are focusing on a solo subject, like
Butterfi eld’s sculpted horse, or on the pairings of
man and animal, or man and mineral, as in the
aforementioned works, the pieces in The New Animist
nod to the ancient belief system by subtly considering
the idea that if we attribute a soul or spiritual
force to humans, then why not to these other life
forms, as well? Or maybe we have already, if even
subconsciously, and that’s what has established their
care, preservation and sustainability as significant
points of existential concern.
The New Animist
ASU Art MuseumJuly 16 – September 3
asuartmuseum.asu.edu
Deborah Butterfield, Horse #2-85
Mixed media assemblage
Karel Appel, Untitled (Animal and Figure), 1971
Color lithograph on paper, 26 1/4 x 40 1/8 in.
Gift of Christina Carroll.
16 JAVA
MAGAZINE