mnartists.org

or go to the advanced search page

Mary Britton Clouse

<< 1 ... 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 ... 43 >>

unasked questions #1

Unasked Questions
Unasked Questions

unasked questions #1 | Media List


Statement

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don't want to hear.
--George Orwell

"Art that can not shape society and therefore also can not penetrate the heart questions of society, in the end influence the question of capital, is no art."
-Joseph Beuys, 1985

When I was a kid I thought I was part dog. Shifting attitudes in contemporary philosophy and biology have borne me out. My relationship with other animals has always been as central to my self identity as my ability to draw.

Much of my work deals with animal rights subject matter and is as much about philosophy, technology and social evolution as it is about art. My political activism informs my art and vice versa. It is about taking a peek at things hidden away in laboratories and barns and wondering who on earth decided these things were OK based on not very rational assumptions about the worth of life and the relevance of another species' suffering, and marveling at how these archaic ideas persist in the 21st century. To be "treated like an animal" is a phrase used to describe the worst kinds of atrocities humans inflict on each other. It begs the conclusion that there is something terribly wrong with the way we treat other animals- the injustice that shapes all other injustice. Like the proverbial elephant in the room, I am fascinated at her huge invisibility.