Column

Jovana Jankovic is a Toronto-based writer, editor and translator. She teaches in Centennial College’s Communications and Professional Writing program and works as a communications specialist for the University of Toronto. Her writing has appeared in _Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism and cléo: a journal of film and feminism_, among others.

Writer

Animals

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Exhibitions

Publishing

The article features: artist Nico Vascellari's monograph; Fogo Island Arts Corporation in Newfoundland and Labrador; and the journal “Capricious,” which focuses on contemporary photography.

Noteworthy

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Walter Phillips

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Art Museum Sep 1

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MOCA Toronto Sept

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Editorial

It is unusual for me to be editing this issue at my desk in Toronto. Usually in mid-August I am on Cape Breton Island, where I find myself about five times a year. One of my favorite pastimes when I am there is to go on long walks at all times of day or on clear nights. During my solitary excursions, I rarely meet another human. ButI run into many other kinds of animals. When travelling along the uninhabited highland plateau that covers the northern part of the island, I pick up well-worn moose trails that allow me to travel greater distances more quickly. In following one of these paths, I am acutely aware that other animals are also following the same path—ahead of me, or behind me—and that, one day, we will encounter one another. We are never far apart: sometimes there is a particular odour, like an invisible line that crosses the trail. Most palpable at night, when one’s sense of smell is heightened, this odour is the particularly sweaty horse–like scent of a moose, or the unmistakably dank odour of a bear. And sometimes I do catch up to these animals while on these paths, or they catch my scent and I hear them thunder off through the trees. Knowing that these animals are more frightened of me than I am of them, I often wonder if I am the first human they’ve ever encountered. Since I am greatly out numbered by animals here, such encounters pose a reversal of how most humans understand their relationship to animals. If the animal is “Other”—what people most fear running into when they are outwalking in the woods—for the animals, I am “Other”—what they most fear when they are roaming about in the forest after dark.

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of exhibitions featuring animals, including _Becoming Animal_ (2005–2006) at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts; _Animal House_ (2009) at saw Gallery in Ottawa; _Natural History_ at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery in Toronto (Spring 2010); and most recently, _Adaptation: Between Species_ (Summer 2010) at the Power Plant in Toronto. Similarly, 20th-century philosophers from Jacques Derrida to Donna Haraway have taken up the idea of the animal in their work. Discussions of animals in contemporary art and culture, however, have often focused on animal _representations_, rather than on animal _relations_. Indeed, images and non-visual representations of animals structure our understanding of them to an enormous degree. This is an issue that Werner Herzog probed eloquently in _Grizzly Man_, his 2005 documentary about Timothy Treadwell, who spent much of his life defending the grizzly and brown bears of southern Alaska. Tragically, it was Treadwell who needed protection, not the bears, as he was eaten by one of the grizzlies he sought to “save.” While this issue of _C Magazine_ takes up how representations shape our understanding of animals to a certain extent, it deals more directly with the relationships that form between humans and other animal species and how artists engage with and represent these bonds.

Each writer in this issue explores this problem in a different way. However, ultimately, they all share an ethical concern about the nature of human/non-human animal relationships. Art historian Carla Benzan revisits a number of works by Carolee Schneemann, looking at the intersection of gazes between Schneemann and her cats, and asking what an ethical position might look like when it involves a point of view that we cannot know. Philosopher Karen Houle examines certain historically entrenched impulses within contemporary culture, philosophy and contemporary art that shape how we think about animals. Through practices that explicitly attempt to de-centre the human, she develops a model of “infinite, indifferent kinship” based not only on the relationships between human and non-human animals, but also on the ones between other animals. Curator and writer Helena Reckitt also explores interspecies relationships in her essay, “Touching Animals,” making the case for complex interspecies interdependencies that are both biological and affective. In a similarvein, Jon Davies writes about Mike White’s 2007 film, _Year of the Dog_, which depicts the relationship between Peggy (played by Molly Shannon) and her dog, Pencil. Davies investigates how the film explores a model for non-heterosexual intimacy and radical politics.

This issue also includes an artist project by Canadian artist Bill Burns: _Bird Radio for Afghanistan_ (2010). Burns’ centrefold piece includes depictions of a number of homemade birdcalls that make the calls of species native to Afghanistan, which are connected to a radio that transmits these sounds. Inside the back cover, there is a key linking the devices that appear in the centrefold to each of the different bird species. In her essay on Burns’ practice, Gentiane Bélanger describes his work as enacting a “polymorphous institutional mimicry” that critiques the complex, mediated relationships that we have with nature, connecting discourses of democracy, war and environmental preservation.

As the theme for an issue, “Animals” poses a particular problem. Karen Houle explains that humans are animals. And the philosopher Donna Haraway tells us that humans are made up of other animals, explaining that only about 10 percent of the cells in our bodies contain human genomes; the rest are filled with bacteria, fungi, and other species.[^1] For Haraway, the human body is merely _figural_, the place “where the biological and literary or artistic come together with all the force of lived reality.”[^2] We share ourselves with many different species. This issue is about how we imagine and represent and experience our relationships with the other species that live   
around us and within us.

[^1]: Donna Haraway, _When Species Meet_ (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 3.
[^2]: Ibid., 4.

Amish Morrell is Assistant Professor at OCAD University, where he teaches Criticism & Curatorial Practice, and Visual and Critical Studies.

Editor

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The editor discusses the various articles published within the issue, including one on the relationship between humans and animals, one on Canadian artist Bill Burns’ artist project, and one on the use of animals in contemporary art and culture.

Editorial: Among Animals

Feature

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International

Film

Death

Sexuality

The article discusses the work of artist and filmmaker Carolee Schneemann which was mainly centered around cats. Most of Schneemann's movies concentrated on the life of her three pet cats named Kitch, Cluny and Vesper, focusing on their daily activities and eating habits. Schneemann's movies include “Kitch's Last Meal,” “Infinity Kisses,” and “Cat's Cradle”.

The Lives and Deaths of Carolee’s Cats

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Youth

Philosophy

Science

The article discusses works of artists focusing on the relationship between humans and animals. The author mentions that artists like Doug Aitken, Francis Alÿs and Mircea Cantor have created art pieces centered around the association between man and animal. The author writes that it is a human impulse that causes an artist to discuss animal behavior in their work.

Infinite, Indifferent Kinship

Jon Davies is a curator and writer based in Toronto.

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The article reviews the film “Year of the Dog,” starring Molly Shannon and John C. Reilly, directed by Mike White.

On Year of the Dog

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Nature

The article presents the author's views on the relationship between humans and animals and also discusses the depiction of this relationship in art. Artists discussed in the article include Joseph Beuys, Marcus Coates and Javier Téllez and their work.

Touching Animals

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Chris Lee is a graphic designer and educator based in Buffalo, New York and Toronto. His research explores graphic design’s entanglement with power, standards and legitimacy. Chris is an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo SUNY.

Designer

Publisher

Artist Project

Gentiane Bélanger is a writer and independent curator. She is also Director/Curator of the Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

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Canadian

Environment

An accompanying text to Bill Burns’ artist project that discusses his various animal projects. It mentions that Burns’ works is not limited to animal behavior and activities but also focuses on man’s cultural, moral and economic understanding of nature and environment.

Of Fauna and Manufactured Derivatives: Bill Burns and the Lucrative Didactics of Environmental Stewardship

Artist

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Bird Radio for Afghanistan, 2010

Review

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Installation

A review of Justin Thomas Schaefer’s exhibition “Comedy Comedy,” at the Midway Contemporary Art gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota by the 2010 winner of the C New Critics competition, Kirsch, Corinna.

Justin Thomas Schaefer: Comedy Comedy

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Found

The article reviews the art exhibition titled “The Echo Chamber,” by artist Kristan Horton at the Silver Flag in Montreal, Quebec.

Kristan Horton: The Echo Chamber

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Social

Participation

The article reviews an exhibition of the art installation titled “Knot,” by artist Adrian Blackwell at the Justina M. Barnicke gallery in Toronto, Ontario.

Adrian Blackwell: Model for a Public Space [knot] 

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The article reviews the photography exhibition titled “Overlapping,” by artist Carlos Garaicoa at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland.

Carlos Garaicoa: Overlapping

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Location

The article reviews the exhibition titled “Timeland: 2010 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art,” at the art gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Ontario.

Timberland:2010 Alberta Biennal of Contemporary Art

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Video

Built environment

The article reviews the exhibition “Scenes From a House Dream,” by Davis Hoffos at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

David Hoffos: Scenes from a House Dream

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Performance art

The article reviews the performance art exhibition “The Artist Is Present,” by artist Marina Abramović at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Marina Abramović: The artist is Present

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Identity

The article reviews the exhibition “Personnes,” at the Grand Palais in Paris, France.

Christian Boltanski: Personnes

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Painting

The article reviews the exhibition “Private Views” at the Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery in Montreal, Quebec.

Marion Wagschal: Private Views and Paintings

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Sound

The article reviews Stephen Kelly’s exhibition “Open Tuning,” at Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary, Alberta.

Stephen Kelly: Open Tuning (WaveUp) 

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Gender

The article reviews the exhibition “Any Ever” at the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, Ontario.

Ryan Trecartin: Any Ever

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Drawing

The article reviews Daryl Vocat’s exhibition “The Secret of the Midnight Shadow,” at Artspace in Peterborough, Ontario.

Daryl Vocat: The Secret of the Midnight Shadow

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The article reviews the book “Trash” by Jon Davies.

Trash, by Jon Davies

Photography

The article reviews the book “Emergence: Contemporary Photography in Canada” edited by Sarah Parsons.

Emergence: Contemporary Photography in Canada, edited by Sarah Parsons

Header

C Mag

Issue 107