The art featured a glass display subdivided into two parts. One side has flies hatching. The flies then travel through a hole to the other side, drawn in by a bright light that burns the flies to death. A previous version featured a dead cow head that attracted the flies.
TAIYLOR SIMONE MITCHELL: An artist who uses dead or dying creatures in his artwork had his installation — filled with 15 goldfish in IV bags — removed from a museum in South Korea… Yu Buck’s art piece, which is named “Fish” and located in the Jeonnam Museum of Art in Gwangyang, South Korea, was considered by some to be animal cruelty… The art piece contained 15 goldfish in plastic bags…
Buck’s piece, part of an exhibition called “Mourning: In the Wake of Loss, A Curatorial Essay” that opened on June 30, caused concern from visitors and local animal rights groups over the goldfish displayed in the piece, Korea Times reported. The article did not specify which groups voiced their concerns… Five of the 15 fish died after the exhibit opened, but the museum removed the rest…
“Art museums are designed to serve as open plazas as well as platforms for discussion,” a museum official told the Korea Times. “As we value the visitors’ feedback and the animal rights groups’ stance, we removed the goldfish after consulting with the artist”. SOURCE…
HANNAH GETAHUN: An art installation has created a buzz after Damien Hirst had his art — featuring hordes of flies that die — was removed from a German museum’s exhibit.
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg dismantled the installation “A Hundred Years (1990)” after animal rights group PETA filed a complaint to the city. The city of Wolfsburg then requested the installation be taken down and the museum complied…
“A Hundred Years” features a glass display subdivided into two parts. One side has flies hatching. The flies then travel through a hole to the other side, drawn in by a bright light that burns the flies to death. A previous version featured a dead cow head that attracted the flies…
Germany’s Animal Welfare Act bans the killing or harming of animals without proper reason. “We thought that flies didn’t come under the Animal Welfare Act,” Museum Director Andreas Beitin told German newspaper Braunschweiger Zeitung.
Otmar Böhmer, the museum’s managing director, told the German Press Agency that they will reach out to Hirst to see if he would be willing to modify the art using artificial flies.
PETA also issued a statement to the paper condemning the exhibit. “Killing animals has nothing to do with art, it just shows the arrogance of people who literally will stop at nothing for their own interests,” Peter Höffken, a representative of PETA Germany, told Braunschweiger Zeitung…
Hirst — known for his provocative art featuring dead animals — has drawn ire from PETA and animal rights activists before. A 2017 Artnet article estimated Hirst has featured nearly one million dead animals in his art, most of them insects like butterflies and flies. He remains one of the best-selling living artists. SOURCE…
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