Reading Report | Art and Animal Rights by Steve Baker

Steve Bakers "Art and Animal Rights" text is a discussion and examination of contemporary artists and how there work talks about animal rights, and how it also confronts the treatment of animals. I appreciate his discussion about how most contemporary art discusses such strong and harsh topics around animals, however these same artists do not always provide a solution to the problems they discuss. He focuses a lot on the subject of animal cruelty and how it is represented in artists work. However what I find most interesting about this text is his ability to allow us to think more in depth about how us as a species share the planet with these animals. He confronts questions about animal life and how they might perceive the world in comparison  to us.

We will have a completely different perspective on the world around us and what we expect of it, in comparison to the animals we share it with. It’s funny how most animals such as farming stock, the majority of the time are not seen as equal despite being put on this earth the same as us. We see them as a resource, something to be number controlled and constantly bred. I get this impression from some of the work seen in Baker’s text. They really give a more gruesome look into what goes on in our industry and how that must affect the worth of these particular animals, in the eye of society. Baker goes onto discuss the difference between a modern day animal cruelty awareness imagery and an artwork from and artist/activist. Both are representing the same thing, however both can be perceived very differently and can create a specific impact on the people who see them.

I enjoy Baker’s discussion about the specific artists work and, despite looking rather different, the all share very similar aspects. All cover a very harsh and intense subject around animal cruelty but at the same time all give a sense of uncertainty as far as a solution goes for these issues. This is a common theme with nature based art work that surrounds the subject of things like Farming and the responsibilities of a Shepard. The harsh and wrong realities of some of the things many farmers do to their sheep are a hard pill to swallow. We can raise awareness using art however it’s hard to take anything else from these images other than the shock factor.