Works of art that use real animals (living or dead)

Art projects that use animals, living or dead :


 * Nicholas Negroponte, SEEK (1969-70) : A project at MIT in which the artist programmed a robotic arm to move crates in an environment inhabited by gerbils who occasionally rearranged the crates. The arm was designed to adapt to the chages the gerbils made.


 * Jannis Kounellis, exhibition of twelve horses in the Galleria L’Attico, Rome (1969) : The Italian artist cleared out a gallery space and filled it with twelve living horses, challenging viewers to view the horses as living art objects.


 * Andrea Zittel, A to Z Breeding Unit: For Averaging Eight Breeds (1993) : part of her early series of explorations of self-sufficiency in which she designed modular art objects that could be inhabited by living creatures.


 * Joseph Beuys, I Like America and America Likes Me (1974) : The artist locked himself in a cell with a wild coyote for three days. They cohabited the same space, slept and ate together. Eventually the coyote adapted its behavior and tolerated the artist.
 * Joseph Beuys, how to explain pictures to a dead hare (1965): a cryptic, shamanistic performance in which the artist cradled a dead hare and whispered soothing messages to it.


 * Eduardo Kac, Alba/GFP Bunny /GFP Bunny (2000) : The "Bio-artist" spliced jellyfish DNA with a rabbit so that the rabbit's fur had a pigment that glowed fluorescent green under UV light rays.


 * Banksy, Elephant In the Room (2006): Graffiti artist Banksy painted an elephant red and gold in a pattern to blend in with the wallpaper design in the background installation. The work was met with controversy from animal rights activists. It appears in the 2010 documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop.


 * Wim Delvoye, Tattooed Pigs (2000) : The Belgian artist bought pigs from Chinese farms and tattooed designs with skulls and Disney characters on them. As part of the contract, the pigs were to be taken care of and when they die, they would be skinned and their tattoos would display on gallery walls. Delvoye did similar contractual "body art" tattoos with humans as well.
 * Atelier Van Lieshout, Foodmaster (2009): Though the work does not use living or dead animals, it is themed around the meat industry, particularily MVRDV's dystopian Pig City project.


 * José Antonio Hernández-Diez, San Guinefort (1991 ) : The artist displayed a taxidermy sleeping dog in a veterinarian's sleeping cas chamber.
 * Guillermo Vargas, Exposición N° 1(2007): perhaps the most controversial works of art using animal creulty for aesthetic purposes, the artist tied a stray dog to the gallery wall to stay until it starved to death.
 * Adel Abdessemed, Usine (2009): This video is the most controversial of the Algerian-French artist's videos displaying animals of various species, including cats, mice, dogs, roosters, lions, scorpions, toads, etc., fighting with each other. His exhibition was shut down early at the San Francisco Art Institute after recieving backlash.
 * Tom Otterness, Shot Dog Film (1977): The artist adopted a dog and filmed himself shooting it, and displayed the film in an infinite loop. Though the project did not recieve as much public attention as other controversial art projects involving animal cruelty, it was dismissed by many critics as distasteful and exploitative.
 * Kim Jones, Rat Piece (1976): The artist doused rats in lighter fluid and lit them on fire. The project sparked controversy in and led to the dismissal of the gallery owner and the court hearing of the artist.
 * Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991): The most famous of Hirst's series of displaying dead animals in formaldehyde as art objects.
 * Mark Thompson, A house divided (1989): The artist displayed his head in a tank of honeybees as a metaphor for the division of east and west Berlin (for more on insects in art).