Audrey Wong

The issue of using animals in art was in the news, once again — specifically, the actual slaughter of a pig depicted in a video installation recently seen in Singapore (the work was by vegetarian artist Simon Birch, was exhibited at NAFA, and held in conjunction with the 2007 Singapore Arts Festival).¹

Despite the artist’s claims that the video was intended to make a point about cruelty in the world today and about the way that humans treat animals — including the slaughter of animals for food — many other artists question the ethics of actually killing an animal for the video. Some artists have said, “there are more creative ways of making the same point”, and rightly so.

But the issue of killing an animal in art goes beyond the question of artistic or aesthetic judgement, it touches on more fundamental matters that affect all human beings: about values, about how we choose to live our lives, about our responsibilities towards other human and non-human lives around us, and about the impact of our actions.

The taking of an innocent life, and particularly in this case, killing as a means of depicting an act of killing (and not killing for food as animals do) cannot be condoned. Currently, The Substation has an unwritten policy that no live animals should be used in art that we present, or art that is made, within our premises. This covers animals used as props and in performances.

And lest some members of the artistic community start to say that such a stance curtails artistic freedom, let’s not forget that freedom does entail responsibility. We believe that artists need to be responsible and aware of the effects of their choices.

Ultimately, a responsible attitude embraces compassion as well, a quality that few people talk about these days. Compassion doesn’t mean “softness” or “weakness”; it is about awareness of the self and others, and the desire to help those who are voiceless or powerless, among other qualities.

The world would probably be a better place if artists, as well as everyone else, strived harder to become much better human animals.

1. See “A journey from life to death” by Adeline Chia in the Life! section of The Straits Times 14 June 2007. [↩]