h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I posted this on ask, but I know a lot of you won't see it there, so please sign teh petition and pass this on. I would actually advise people not to look at the photographs.


There's an artist, Nathalia Edenmont, who kills cats, mice, doves, rabbits, and other animals, mutilates their bodies, and then takes their photographs. She's on exhibition, among other places, at the Wetterling Gallery in Sweden. She has taken the top halves of five white mice and made them into finger puppets. She beat a cat to death with a stick. And this is called art. This is not only inhumane, but morally reprehensible.

Link to samples of the exhibit (warning! offensive content):
http://www.wetterlinggallery.com/archive/nathalia/nathalia_main.htm

The Wetterling Gallery's Justification of her work:
http://www.wetterlinggallery.com/newsletter/newsletter.htm

*****Link to the petition against her:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/853089392

Would be a crime here in the US as far as I know....

There has finally been a great effort to follow-up on cruelty to animals and prosecute them along with a referral to mental health care. Since they have connected it to cruelty to humans in many of the criminal trials it is now taken seriously.

I am contacting the RSPCA head office tomorrow.

I have emailed the London bbc news service to highligt the story.

Can anyone pass this onto other news services to spread the story. If we can break the US news with this, then something may get done.

Crikey Moses, they're hideous! Even if they'd been put together using some kind of photo art package, they'd be aesthetically, well, crap. Horses for courses, I guess.

Though I find them shocking in a moral sense, it's made somehow worse by the cheesy quality of the art. I like much of the work of the artist-anatomist Gunther von Hagens, who uses human corpses for his pieces. The difference there is that von Hagens celebrates natural anatomical beauty, and people choose to become his exhibits after their death.

The article you linked to says this: "There is nothing illegal in Nathalia's art. She has killed the animals in as humane a way as possible." Did she really beat a cat to death with a stick, or is this hearsay?

I would like to see an end to the dreadful thing this woman is doing, but the idea of a petition concerns me. The more fuss there is about her art, the more publicity it'll get, and the more popular it might become. Look at Damien Hurst. So I won't sign anything just yet, though I am open to persuasion.

Artist-anatomist Gunther von Hagens - he is fascinating

I will not look at the pictures or read it.
I cannot sign it for much the same reason as snailrind.

Calling the animal groups where she lives or works would do the most good I suspect. They will get the word out for sure.

If she is funded by any government arts program that would be another group to contact. If it is against the law she would not get the funding.

She needs to be blocked from childrens viewing on the internet Her ISP should be able to do something >> adult content.

I won't try to persuade you, its a personal moral thing.

I hate Damian Hurst so much, but people got upset about the mammals he killed but never the butterflies. He was the largest importer of butterflies into this country, it was so sick to see them killed and used as art.

I believe it is valid to eat an animal, because then it died for a valid reason, I personally don't eat meat, but I do not condemn those who do.

But 'art'? To derive enjoyment from torture, mutilation and death leads us down a morally objectional path. We need to stand firm and not allow this to be called art. If someone killed a human and used it as 'art', would that be okay? We need to realise we live in an ecosystem where we have a niche, and all creatures within it are valid, not just us.

We need to respect other creatures, both human and non-human. If we cannot respect non-human life then respect for human life will go as well, in fact you can already see it happening.

It is lazy to say this is art, take a stand, be unfashionable, be ethical.

Where is she located?

I would assume Sweden, as that is where the gallery is, but I cannot be certain.

I have just contacted a few animals right groups in the US

Definitely not art to me

I viewed the link to the pictures, only looked at one. I've signed the petition (publicity or no), and will be contacting some animal rights groups tomorrow afternoon.

I, too, find this morally objectionable and reprehensible. I don't think taking a life in the name of "art" is in any way aesthetically pleasing, clever, or even right. I realize that this is just my opinion, but seeing things like this make me sad and sick.

Thanks for sharing those links, and for warning just how awful the subject matter was.

I'm not in a fit state mentally to view the pics, but I'm taking Kaz's word for it and going to sign the petition now.

Bless you Kaz for bringing this to the world's attention.

ugh.

Can't she make her own lifelike images out of clay or textiles that are not harmful to animals?



I am signing.



How hateful.

I sometimes use dead animals in my art, such as lizards that Yoda has killed, or moths & butterflies i find dead. I also have used nests that have been flung into the road by thoughtless hedge trimmers.

BUT i use the "shock" value of a real creature as a way to make a point, usually that the creature continues to live on in some way, even as a fixed image & somehow celebrates the death of one small thing which might otherwise go unnoticed.

Certainly i wouldn't kill or hurt an animal for this or any other reason, nor a human either.

I am NOT going to look at the pictures, , i will take your word for it. How did you find the site in the first place? Was there a warning about the content?

I agree with abbi as to the best way of proceeding with this.

zdt

I signed the petition & emailed the link to my daughter (a lover) and she also signed without looking at the pics.

I was sent the email from someone in The Pagan Federation. I have emailed the gallery separately and will be emailing the tourist office in Sweden or somewhere like that later.

Terri - what you do is completely different, I reckon..you find them. That is very different.

She finds a likely candidate and kills it and then uses it.

So if I saw her and thought that her head would look rather nice on vase, does that make it normal and acceptable for me to go and buy/catch her and follow that thro and declare it art?

Ok, we kill and eat animals and wear leather...and the gallery's point is what exactly? I suppose we can make a choice not to now - that is a bit feeble if you ask me as an excuse to create and justify art that way.

I'm kind of annoyed at the dramatic attention they are getting from this, which will in turn get them more business...if your an art gallery - any news is good news

There is something wrong with me today, I'm echo-ing myself and repeating the same word, over and over...

And which word is that....that....that....that??????

(maybe you are inside a cave?)

zdt