Throughout the history of art, images of non-human animals primarily have been understood primarily as symbols. Recent animal studies interventions in art and art history have begun to see images of non-humans as not just mere symbols but as representative of actual lived animal lives. While this critical turn is important, it does not necessarily account for artwork that is not only representative of animals but also contains physical animal bodies, such as the work of Damien Hirst, Robert Rauschenberg, Polly Morgan, or Mark Dion, to name just a few. Recently, scholars Nicole Shukin and Giovanni Aloi have charged art historians and artists with an ethical responsibility to take this animal materiality seriously. In her book Animal Capital, Shukin uses the concept of rendering to analyze both the rendering of animals as representation but also the rendering of animals (as in the boiling down of body parts to create glues, pigment, or even the gelatin used to print photographs). This panel seeks papers and artist talks that take animal materiality in art to task, whether that be through physical representations of animal bodies, like in taxidermy, or through often overlooked means, such as the egg in tempera paint or the animal bristles in paintbrushes.

Proposals must be submitted by 11:59pm on April 1, 2020. Please submit using the online platform: https://secac.secure-platform.com/a/solicitations/9/home

For more information about SECAC 2020 in Richmond, VA visit: https://secacart.org/page/Richmond

Please contact the session chairs with any questions.

• Jessica Landau: [email protected]
• Ruth K. Burke: [email protected]