{"id":773664,"date":"2023-09-16T08:15:16","date_gmt":"2023-09-16T12:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=773664"},"modified":"2023-09-16T09:14:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T13:14:10","slug":"lin-may-saeed-renowned-sculptor-who-viewed-animals-as-her-equals-dies-at-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=773664","title":{"rendered":"THE ART OF ANIMAL LIBERATION: Renowned activist sculptor who viewed animals as her equals has died"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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All of Lin May Saeed\u2019s work sought to reestablish lost relationships with animals, whom she viewed as humanity\u2019s equals. Her sculptures were rooted in the politics of the animal liberation movement. A vegan activist for more than 25 years, of her work Saeed wrote: 'The objective is to develop a world in which humans and animals can live peacefully with each other, beyond historical experiences. The question is where our path is leading to since we removed ourselves from animals'.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

ALEX GREENBERGER:<\/strong> Lin May Saeed, an artist whose sculptures encouraged empathy with animals by way of tender narratives and quietly forceful activist musings, has died at 50… All of Saeed\u2019s work sought to reestablish lost relationships with animals, whom she viewed as humanity\u2019s equals. Her sculptures were rooted in the politics of the animal liberation movement, yet they rarely made direct pronouncements about how we should relate to the menagerie of cats, panthers, pangolins, lions, calfs, camels, and foxes that she depicted.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSaeed\u2019s works usually tell a story\u2015though she prefers the term \u2018fable\u2019\u2014and often borrows the tales from Abrahamic scriptures, history, protests, myths, and dreams, leaving the implications open to interpretation,\u201d Emily Watlington wrote in Art in America. \u201cBecause she constantly revisits the theme of human-animal relations, there\u2019s no mistaking where Saeed stands. Still, she approaches her subject with empathy and grace: her work is not self-righteous, and it does not preach”…<\/em><\/p>\n

She lived by example, working in her Berlin studio alongside two rabbits, whom she created sculptures for, and frequently reusing materials such as Styrofoam that she sourced from people\u2019s trash and the urban landscape. She was a vegan for more than 25 years, and was herself an activist, having found her cause while in college during the \u201990s. Saeed\u2019s politics were contagious. In her A.i.A. essay, Watlington reported that she knew of at least three people who became vegetarians after seeing Saeed\u2019s work…<\/em><\/p>\n

Her art had a range of references, from contemporary philosophy to centuries-old mythology. On her website, Saeed quoted the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian text, at length to discuss how humanity now relates to nature. \u201cThe objective is to develop a world, in which humans and animals can live peacefully with each other, beyond historical experiences,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe question is where our path is leading to since we removed ourselves from animals.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Some of Saeed\u2019s works represent humans alongside animals. Cleaner (2006\/20) features a person in a hazmat suit cradling a small horse whose head is flopped over one leg; this human appears to be gently massaging the animal\u2019s back. St. Jerome and Lion (2016), one of Saeed\u2019s gates formed from steel, takes up a biblical narrative about a man who did not fear his sharp-toothed companion, even pulling a thorn from one of its paws.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet a number of her Styrofoam sculptures center animals who are shown either in harmony with humans or on their own. Even in isolation, her animals are still afforded their own psychology. \u201cI understand my works not as objects, but as subjects,\u201d she once said…<\/em><\/p>\n

In the past decade, her work has begun to be seen widely, appearing in venues around Germany such as the Berlin Biennale and the Museum Frieder Burda, as well as in other European venues like the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale, the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, and the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Italy. In 2020, she had her most comprehensive show to date at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. A solo show is set to open in September at the Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin.<\/em><\/p>\n

She was not afraid to dream big with her art and activism. In her Bomb interview, critic Osman Can Yerebakan asked how animals may join humans in the fight for equality. She responded, \u201cWhen I see a utopian approach to your question, my favorite daydream comes to mind involving how climate change is solved. Animals and aliens give a master class for homo sapiens called: How Not To Mess It Up”. <\/em>SOURCE…<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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