Spaces of Encounter : Art and Revision in Human - Animal Relations

This doctoral thesis examines contemporary human relationships with animals in a Western context by means of three ‘relational’ art projects produced by Snæbjörnsdóttir/Wilson – nanoq: flat out and bluesome; (a)fl y; and seal. It explores the research and visual art methodologies employed in the art projects, tracing their relationship with writings on human-animal relations. These artworks engage their audiences in a series of ‘encounters’ with the subject, in which perceived dualities are made to meet, e.g. haunting and hunting, perfection and imperfection, the real and the unreal. These dualities are important in theorizing this ‘relational’ space where the eclipse of the ‘real’ animal occurs through its representation and in giving shape to questions on the construction and the limits of these boundaries, embedded within and arising from the artworks.