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"By transposing us beyond the confines of bound identities, art becomes necessarily inhuman in the sense of nonhuman in that it connects to the animal, the vegetable, earthy and planetary forces that surround us. Art is also, moreover, cosmic in its resonance and posthuman by structure, as it carries us to the limits of what our embodied selves can do or endure [...] To this effect art is linked to death as the experience of limits," (Braidotti 2013, 107).

If we're talking about a system or concept that is always pushing boundaries, art is certainly deserving of a mention. The above quote stipulates the connections art makes to our previous themes of death and reevaluated ways/states of becoming. In death, Dolly the sheep's body was taxidermied and showcased in a museum. For most artists who practice taxidermy, it is an emotional humbling experience. Divya Anantharaman is a well known practitioner who expresses “Being able to give something another life, elevating it into something beyond death—that gives me chills.” (Leckert 2018). While Dolly's body has been, in a sense, been given that additional life, it is not a life for her benefit more so it is for those not willing to let her or her body go. Again, she has had no say in what is done to her body post death. Now this does not mean that she cannot still be considered art, as the practice of taxidermy requires a very specific creative skillset. What I am trying to get here is simply how Dolly's body being made into an installation opens the door way to ask questions about death and rituals of mourning. Is it appropriate? Does her body allow for that posthuman artistic connection Braidotti points to?

This page has paths:

  1. Working with/through Death Evelyn Burvant

Contents of this path:

  1. Face Forward; A Posthumanist Mask