Animal Influence I - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

Snæbjörnsdóttir/Wilson
‘Knutur’ (video still) from the Installation, between you and me 2009 Snæbjörnsdóttir/Wilson
artists, to open up new spaces for understanding –
and in the field of human/animal relations, our
vulnerability is no less potentially remedial.
Having said this, what is rarely
acknowledged in many stories of human and
animal encounters, is the imposition that such
proximity constitutes for the animals in question. In
the case of the wild animal, the model of the
human extincting of species, consciously,
deliberately, or otherwise, is long and notoriously
established. Often, historically we have taken
insufficient care to anticipate the consequences of
our proximity and interaction. Perhaps just as
pertinently, in the case of other human cultures and
civilizations, where the terms of engagement have
been unequal (i.e. not based on consensus
exchange and trade), our impact has all too often
been devastating. The term “consenting adults”
springs to mind as an equivalence, not in any way
to infantilize the other, but as a means of identifying
the disparity that can exist in encounters between
cultures and species where the integrity of one
party is unequivocally compromised – in short
where there is a profound imbalance of power.
In a development of our Big Mouth project
101
(Tramway, Glasgow 2004), in April 2011, we took
part of the work back to Tasmania and installed it at
the now derelict Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, on the
site of the enclosure occupied by the last recorded
living Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine. For its
reconfiguration at this somewhat inauspicious site,
we attached the naming signs to a specially
erected telegraph pole (extending 8m above
ground).
An installation by Snæbjörnsdóttir and
Wilson at the old Hobart Zoo site
overlooking the Derwent River shows some
of the common names given to the
thylacine. Visual and verbal
representations of this marsupial often
suggest a similarity with feared or hated
European or Asian animals. They are
evidence of a slow but successful
campaign to exterminate the Tasmanian
‘tiger’ . . . and demonstrate the
importance of representation to a
species’ survival.[1]