Images clockwise from left:
Steven Holland, willow pattern (2004)
Graeme Peebles, The remnants of the Last Supper (1981)
Marian Drew, Banded Bandicoot with quince (2005)
William Robinson, Family portrait (Formal) (1980)
Louise Weaver, Squirrel (2003)
Tiffany Shafran, Two in the hand/fly away birdie (2004)
Right: Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Butterfly drawing, detail (2004)
Left: Michael Zavros, Love Me (2005)
Animals as Allegory
Front image: Sharon Green, Devout sadness, detail (2005)
PUBLIS HER
DESIG N A ND PRODUCTION
QUT Art Museum
Queensland University of Technology
2 George Street
BRISBANE QLD 4000
Australia
QUT Publications 13006
Copyright © Queensland University of Technology 2006
All works are reproduced with permission of the artist.
ISBN: 1 74107 102 X
CRICOS No 00213J
E XHIBITION DATES
Queensland University of Technology Art Museum
2 February to 9 April 2006
Q UT A R T MUS EUM IS PROUDLY S PONSOR ED BY
Kay and Robert Bryan,
Diana Gibson and
The Lee Foundation
Animals as Allegory
2 February to 9 April 2006
Beasts of Burden
Imagine a chariot drawn by two horses, one white, upright
Jorge Luis Borges also compiled a bestiary, a catalogue of
Tiffany Shafran’s birds lie motionless, with patterns based on
and cleanly made, with dark limpid eyes and a gentle temperament.
imaginary animals that, in their vast permutations, resonate
crocheted fancywork somehow trapping them in the domestic
a dead bee, 2003. With this title Lucy Griggs acknowledges the
He is called Glory. The other horse looks crooked, lumbering rather
with our primal imagination. Borges deemed the dragon a beast
sphere.
ghost of Joseph Beuys, who silently haunts this show. He believed
than cantering. Flat-faced, dark and shaggy, his grey eyes shout
necessary to the human psyche by reason of its occurrence in so
insolenceHe is named Pride. Wishing only for a pleasant ride,
many cultures. Similarly, the works exhibited in Animals speak to
the charioteer is constantly unbalanced by the two mismatched
our imagination, but not in complete stories. This truncation is
animals powering the vehicle.
echoed in the aesthetic of the works selected. Where these visual
References to Plato’s allegory of the cave of shadows occur
frequently when reading about art. It is one of the earliest literary
allegories and deals with representation. However, Plato also spoke
and the human qualities they best represented. These bestiaries
collected information that everyone knew – that the lion symbolises
courage, the fox is crafty and not to be trusted, and that horses
weep for their dead riders.
The nature of allegories has changed. While the majority of animals
depicted in Animals as Allegory are figurative they do not lend
themselves to a simple narrative. Rather, they suggest many
Marian Drew, Sharon Green and Steven Holland. As Roland Barthes
artist as shaman, the gifted one who is able to communicate with,
noted, it is deeply unnerving to see a photograph of a corpse.
and transform into, animals. While not shamanic as such, Ken
Because of our belief in photography capturing a slice of life, a
Sharon Green’s lush Cibachrome photographs dwell on the
Thaiday’s articulated Beizam (Shark) head-dress, 1994, is used in
moment in time, when we see an image of a dead thing it is almost
relationship between trophy and decoration. Devout sadness, 2005,
ritual dance performances to represent the hammerhead shark, a
as if it has come back to life.vii We vehemently wish that the wombat
stalk both nature and artifice through the motif of the animal.
vulnerable, amusing or striking, yet are often in some way
fragmented. Their stories are full of hidden meanings, ambivalent
meanings, nonsense and fractured connections.
an image of a taxidermy deer with glass tears is paired with Cabin
fever, 2005, showing luxuriantly decadent wallpaper. The spent quarry
It is the story that acts as a container for the vast array of
becomes an object of decoration, something wild domesticated
(and palpably dead).
Gany’tjurr ga balin at Burraltja (Heron and skinny fish at Burraltja),
vi
symbol of law and order – the ‘boss of the saltwater’.
lying with the vibrant cut watermelon were only sleeping (Marian
Drew, Wombat with watermelon, 2005), yet for all the care the artist
The dead bee highlights the abundance of death imagery in this
show. In some ways it is quite spooky. Sharon Green’s taxidermy
has taken, we know that it isn’t. Overall, the tableau carries a
distinct air of the familiar made strange.
fox watches us from Forsaken promise, 2005, it is unnaturally still,
1998, there are several layers of meaning. Djambawa Marawili
Michael Zavros’ images of Onagadori, chickens bred for a gene that
and a little skewed. Graeme Peebles’ mezzotint of budgerigars
No extinction of species concerns us as much as our own demise.
illustrates not only the actual story of the heron and the skinny fish,
creates a non-moulting tail, are portrayed with a sense of nostalgia,
is innocuous until you notice their exposed skeletal structure and
Humans are the only animals aware of their own mortality, but unlike
reminiscent of glamorous magazine photos shot in exotic locations.
appendages in a double take. The butterflies, seahorses and emu
a tadpole or a caterpillar we do not transform into something else.
As contrived as any fashion shoot, these supermodels of the poultry
feathers used by Maria Fernanda Cardoso and the actual sheep
However, we have the ability to conceive of something else
afterwards. Like the bird flying upwards we yearn for transcendence.
The dream of post-mortem flight may only be one of a fickle but
but by using particular designs such as an elongated diamond
Ben Quilty, Baz Luhrman (2004)
pattern he references other information accessible only to other
Much time has passed since Plato and the medieval monks.
tradition are photographs; for example works by Joachim Froese,
his performances involving animals Beuys was the model of the
sparkling creations. Also high on the personality stakes, these works
information enclosed in indigenous art works. In a piece such as
In medieval times people would compile great lists of animals
It is also interesting that many of the works that draw on the still life
heal what he perceived as a sense of loss in the world.v Through
camouflage through her beautiful crocheted, sequined, faux-furred,
poetically of the human soul, characterising it as a chariot, with the
driver harnessing two horses of radically different temperaments.i
that an encounter with nature, often through animals, was able to
Louise Weaver’s works play with notions of both glamour and
artists have made use of animals, they may appear beautiful,
Pamela Mei-Leng See,
Cane toad dreaming, detail
(2005)
A Ladybeetle whispers the story of the Rabbit in the Moon to
clan members or those who have been told the tale.
The connected diamond design relates specifically to Marawili’s
clan. Animals are often also claimed as totems, as the sign of
a particular group or individual, and this identification is in no
By comparison, Madeleine Kelly’s narratives are created by
world are represented with tail feathers flowing free. In reality these
skulls used by Steven Holland poignantly draw our attention to the
the artist according to her own unique iconography. In Lifting
animals are caged to protect their valued feathers from ever
formal aspects of animal physiognomy, both internal and external.
a helpless patient, 2003, we see three deer that seem to be
getting dirty.
insistent imagination, but it is necessary, like the dragon.
It is paradoxical that in English we refer to a still life, yet in French
rescuing a reclining figure. There is obviously something vital
happening, but the exact nature of the relationship between deer
Zavros has likened the lives of Onagadori to his own painting
the term is nature morte (dead nature). Part of this long tradition
and human is ambiguous. Searching for meaning, we focus on
process. Stating that ‘the breeding of these birds is so specialised
is one of the major allegorical constructs, the memento mori, the
the animals. Kelly has inverted the accepted focus, giving these
as to be almost obscure in much the same way that realist painting
reminder of death. Ultimately we come to the reminder of our
Animals as Allegory is curated by Simone Jones, Curatorial Officer
deer a level of agency the hooded human lacks – while still deeply
might be considered, outmoded and romantic’.iii Breeding for the
own animal mortality.
(Public Programs) QUT Art Museum.
Yet we can also just as easily imagine a canary dying in a mine,
enigmatic the deer have more presence, more personality. In
sake of perfecting a useless animal, and, as in Green’s work, of
an experimental lab rat or a pinned butterfly.
short, they are more human than the human.
hunting for the sake of it, both provide a very tangible link between
things – tales of death and abundance, moods both familiar and
exotic, and the complexities of our own identity and creativity. We
remember the silken feel of a rabbit’s pelt beneath our hands, the
trembling of an injured sparrow or the dignity of a spider’s web.
way restricted to indigenous peoples. A work like Ben Quilty’s
Baz Luhrman, 2004, can signal suburban Australia in an
instant – how many homes play perch to a grandiose, puffed
up blue budgerigar like Baz?
Combining several cultural meanings within one work, Pamela
Mei-Leng See’s Cane Toad Dreaming series creates a Chinese-
Although cloaked in animal forms, like Plato’s horses, the allegories
in this exhibition concern humans – our identity, our impact on the
world we inhabit, our mortality. The animals are always standing
in for something else, some surfeit of imagination. Sharon Green’s
crying deer may gaze out at us, but its impenetrable eyes give
Australian hybrid. With a whorl of jumping toads and frogs, See
reminds us that the same animal can have conflicting meanings
in different cultures. An auspicious symbol for Chinese, yet a
menace to Queenslanders, the cane toad sits contentedly
between two worlds.
Projecting human motivations onto animal expressions,
family’ like the farm animals depicted in William Robinson’s Family
portrait (Formal), 1980, or observed for their own unique visage
a construction.
face, 2001–03, animals can become an embodiment of human
psychological complexes.
As constant companions of humankind, animals are indelibly
etched into our consciousness. From ancient petroglyphs on rock
Far from benefiting animals, this projection often results in
to contemporary art they still accompany us. We dream about
unwanted human attributes being cast off into animal form.
animals, we exploit animals and we forget that we are animals.
Animals have been variously associated with women (the
argument being that both are closer to nature than men), the
lowest levels of the subconscious (libido and other ‘beastly’
drives), and emotionality and creativity in general (as opposites of
Joachim Froese, Rhopography #37 (2003)
i
Plato, Phaedrus, trans. Robin Waterfield, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002.
As Steve Baker notes:
ii
Jorge Luis Borges with Margarita Guerrero, The Book of Imaginary Beings,
trans. Norman Thomas di Giovanni, Cape, London, 1970, p. 16.
many interactions with animals. Whether they are ‘one of the
as in Maria Fernanda Cardoso’s Chicken face, Fish face and Bat
We are ignorant of the meaning of the dragon in the same
way that we are ignorant of the meaning of the universe,
but there is something in the dragon’s image that appeals
to the human imagination...ii
the animal represented and the nature of creativity.
anthropomorphism allows us a way of ascribing meaning to our
no insight into its journey. Like the glass tears, the deer is also
✽
Emma Mühlberger
rationality). Assorted intimations of this displacement are present
in many of the works in Animals.
Many post-modern or post-structuralist artists and writers
seem, at one level or another, to adopt or to identify with
the animal as a metaphor for, or as an image of, their own
creativity. Whether it connotes a sense of alienation from
the human or a sense of bodily freedom and unboundedness,
this willing taking on of animal form casts the fixity
of identity as an inhibition of creativity.iv
✽
George Milpurrurru, Magpie geese (1994)
iii
Michael Zavros, artist statement, 2005.
iv
Steve Baker, The Postmodern Animal, Reaktion Books, London, 2000, p. 18.
v
Alain Borer, “A Lament for Joseph Beuys.” The Essential Joseph Beuys, Ed.
Lothar Schirmer, London, Thames and Hudson, 1996, p. 14.
vi
Ken Thaiday, “Stories” www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/content/thaiday_standard.
asp?name=Thaiday_Introduction (accessed 13/12/05)
vii
Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, translated by Richard Howard, Vintage,
London, 2000, p. 78.