Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery Analysis

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Issue: The Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery is proposing an exhibition for the Perth International Art Festival. An artwork is being proposed that pushes ethical boundaries. This said artwork is ‘Helena’ by Marco Evaristti. Imagine you are a member of a UWA human or animal ethics committee and have to decide whether the artwork can be exhibited at UWA.
Description of the artwork: “‘Helena’ consists of ten Moulinex blenders positioned on an ordinary kitchen table; each blender is filled with water and houses a gold fish. The blenders are visibly connected to the mains as they are plugged in a multi-socket making the rules of the game implicitly set out from the start: anyone is allowed to press the ‘on’ button which will result in the liquidising …show more content…

- Is the act of killing the fish going to ensue change and are the consequences able to be accepted when you kill the fish?
- Act of animal cruelty as the animal is unable to give consent for participation in this artwork.
- There is a level of uncertainty in whether pressing the button will indeed kill the fish or if the display is fake- this could lead to visitors pressing the button just to test whether the blenders do in fact work.
- Portrays a non- utilitarianism approach to justifying his point about the state of society and to an extent humanity.
- There is no mention of an age restriction for this artwork. Should certain age groups eg. Young children be allowed access to this aesthetic experience?
- “Legislation around Australia prohibits cruelty to animals. A typical definition of an act of cruelty is to ill-treat or unreasonably, unnecessarily or unjustifiably beat, kick, wound, mutilate, abuse, torture or terrify an animal. The emphasis is on preventing animals from suffering ‘unnecessary pain’.” (Arts Law, 2003). It could be said this artwork is unjustifiable due to lack of educational

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