The Nature of Contemporary Art

Artist Sam Easterson likes animals. And now that he’s incorporated several of them into his latest video project, he has more respect for them than ever. He’s gone the Young British Artists of “Sensations” fame one better – instead of displaying preserved slices of animals, he’s made the animals themselves the creators. No – he’s not the author of Why Cats Paint – he just affixes video cameras to animals and lets them record. And the animal-eye view results he’s gotten have generated some unexpected insights: “I was shocked to realize all the other animals in the flock could tell that this one sheep with the camera had been ‘altered’ in some way. She kept trying to enter, and they kept treating her as an outcast. I also learned sheep can run very fast and fences are not as sturdy as you think.” Depends of the particular fence in question, one would suppose, but fascinating stuff regardless.

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