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

Situated between the fields of art, architectural
design and the emergent field of critical animal
studies, my current research project, titled
towards a feline architecture: aesthetics and
economies of interspecies dwelling, studies how
non-human animals contribute to the production
of urban spatial and material culture. I use hybrid
investigative methods – developed from
drawing, tracing, sampling and writing practices
in the fields of performance art and architectural
design – to articulate the ephemeral materialities
and spatial dynamics between species in built
environments. The research locates instances of
performative dwelling or occupation to propose
new configurations of production and
understanding between species and spaces.
While the research is led by questions of what
non-human species might teach us about
aesthetics and economies of urban dwelling and
building, it also aims to unsettle notions of artistic
intention and authorship through considering the
agency of non-human actors in the
development of culture.
This presentation will focus on the analysis of
an artwork – titled New Art Examiner – which
documents a performative response by a
domestic feline – a tabby cat, named Sabre – to
a reproduction of a drawing by the artist
Raymond Pettibon which was featured on the
cover of the February 1999 issue of the art journal
NEW ART EXAMINER:
SIGNS, MARKS, GESTURES
The field of contemporary art has witnessed a striking growth in interspecies creative production over the past few
decades. A number of artists have developed projects in relation to animal agency, language and culture. The range of
methods used by artists spans the framing and interpretation of works produced autonomously by animals to works
created by (human) artists in conjunction with animals. In contemporary art the emphasis is currently on production;
there is less discourse at this point on how animals read or respond to cultural works. In order to take up the potential
for art criticism in an expanded field, I will examine, in this paper, instances and methods of animal responses and
interpretations to artworks produced by humans.
Text by Joanne Bristol
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“New Art Examiner.” The performance happened
by chance: in rearranging my library, a number
of art magazines had been strewn on the floor.
Sabre responded to the “New Art Examiner” issue
in such a marked way that I felt compelled to
record it. This is an example of how my research
includes aspects of unanticipated improvisation
in everyday life as both method and subject
matter. The analysis here does not focus on
Sabre’s performance exclusively, but rather on
how the gestures and marks we co-produce are
informed by the physical boundaries of our
shared living space, and objects within it.
My research uses both art and
domestication processes to strategically perform
and interpret the construction of knowledge. It is
motivated by a desire to critically disrupt and
exceed categorical boundaries of species,
spaces and disciplines. The work is produced in
the home / studio I share with other
domesticated species, both human and feline,
and involves their “participation.” I qualify the
concept of “participation” in relation to a 9000year
historical span of human-feline
domestication. The work is embedded within the
institutions of “pethood” and “contemporary art”
as they exist in current neo-liberal social and
political contexts. It is from these locations that I
seek to question the aesthetics, economies and
ethics of interspecies urban dwelling, at any