Becoming Animal: Contemporary Art in the Animal Kingdom

Becoming Animal: Contemporary Art in the Animal Kingdom





In an age when scientists say they can no longer specify the exact difference between human and animal, living and dead, many contemporary artists have chosen to use animals in their workâ€"as the ultimate "other," as metaphor, as reflection. The attempt to discover what is animal, not surprisingly, leads to a greater understanding of what it means to be human. In Becoming Animal, 12 internationally known artists investigate the shifting boundaries between animal and human. Their explorations may be a barometer of things to come.

The works included in Becoming Animalâ€"which accompanies an exhibit at MASS MoCAâ€"range from the aviary and cabinet of curiosities of Mark Dion to the gun-toting bird collages of Michael Oatman. Nicolas Lampert's machine-animal collages and Jane Alexander's corpse-like humanoids suggest a new landscape of alienation. Rachel Berwick's investigation of the last Galapagos tortoise from the island of Pinto and Brian Conley's humanized mating call of the Tungara frog question the divide between human and animal communication. Patricia Piccinini imagines a bodyguard for a bird on the edge of extinction and Ann-Sofi Siden recreates the bedroomâ€"and paranoiaâ€"of psychologist Alice Fabian. Natalie Jeremijenko presents another installment in her ongoing Ooz, reverse-engineering the zoo, and Kathy High's installation of "trans-animals" remembers lab rats who have given their lives for science. Sam Easterson's videos allow us to see from the viewpoint of an aardvark, a tarantula, a tumbleweed; Motohiko Odani's films show a surrealistic genetically modified bestiary. Becoming Animal documents these works with eye-popping full-color images, taking us on a visual journey through an unknown world.









List Price: $ 25.00



Price: $ 16.11



Raising Healthy Honey Bees (Raising Healthy Animals Series)





Raising Health Honey Bees is a practical guide to constructing equipment, raising honey bees and producing valuable crops of honey and beeswax. This book describes the tools and techniques that can be used by anyone who wants to enrich their lives through beekeeping. These techniques are based upon the use of Top Bar hives, which are simple and inexpensive to construct and easy to maintain. It includes extensive illustrations and diagrams so that all the necessary equipment can be home-made. The book covers European, African and Asian Honey Bees, as well as Giant and Dwarf Honey Bee species.









List Price: $ 15.00



Price: $ 15.00