Angela Singer (born 1966 in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

) is an artist of British and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

nationality who lives in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

, New Zealand. An

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their Utilitarianism, utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding s ...

activist, she addresses the way in which people exploit animals and the environment through the repurposing and remodelling of vintage taxidermy, a process she calls "de-taxidermy". Since the 1990s her work has been exhibited both in New Zealand and internationally.

Education

Singer graduated in 2002 from the

Elam School of Fine Arts The Elam School of Fine Arts, founded by John Edward Elam, is part of the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. Students study degrees in fine art with an emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach. The schoo ...

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

with an MFA. She lives with her partner, artist Daniel Unverricht, in Wellington, New Zealand.

Art

Since the mid-1990s, Singer's art has explored the human and non-human animal relationship, driven by her concern with the ethical and epistemological consequences of humans using non-human life, and the role that humans play in the exploitation and destruction of animals and our environment. Singer sees the boundaries separating other species from humans as permeable. She sculpts in various media including modelling clay, wax, fibre, ceramics, gemstones, and vintage jewelry, as well as wool and silk. Many of her sculptural works combine mixed media with vintage taxidermy. Singer is known for working with vintage hunting trophy taxidermy, which she recycles into new sculptural forms to explore the human/animal divide. She calls this practice “de-taxidermy”, a process which involves revealing the wounds inflicted on the animal, wounds that are obscured by the taxidermy process and its attempted "rescue from time". Singer incorporates into her work some of the history of the death of the animal, which she obtains from those who give her the vintage taxidermy. Like Karen Knorr, Singer uses old hunting trophies or vintage taxidermy that natural history museums have thrown away. Some of the trophy taxidermy Singer uses is found discarded in dumpsters and garbage piles. Curator Jo-Ann Conklin writes:

A number of artists in the exhibition react to human treatment of animals and the environment. New Zealand artist and animal activist Angela Singer rails against trophy hunting. Her latest work, ''Spurts'' (2015), depicts a decapitated deer with cartoony yet still gruesome bubble-gum pink “blood” spurting from it neck. Mark Dion’s ''Concrete Jungle'' (1993) is…the detritus of our contemporary consumer culture — a pile of discards and garbage in which animals attempt to survive.

Activism

Singer is an artist and an

animal advocate The animal rights (AR) movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals ...

. Like other artists such as

Sue Coe Sue Coe (born 1951) is an English artist and illustrator working primarily in drawing, printmaking, and in the form of illustrated books and comics. Her work is in the tradition of social protest art and is highly political. Coe's work often inc ...

, she is concerned with the

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...

of using live animals in art. She will not work with living animals or have living creatures harmed or killed for her art. In the early 1990s she worked with the animal rights group Animal Liberation

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia (ALV)

antivivisection Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...

campaign. A quote from Singer, regarding her use of taxidermy as an art form:

I think using taxidermy is a way for me to honour the animals’ life, because all the taxidermy I use was once a trophy kill. ... The very idea of a trophy animal is sickening to me.

She is not related to

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a Secularit ...

, the animal rights activist and philosopher.

Exhibitions

* ''Curious Creatures & Marvellous Monsters.'' Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand. 18 Aug – 4 Nov 2018 * ''The Sexual Politics of Meat.'' The Animal Museum, Los Angeles, USA. 25 Feb – 30 April 2017 * ''Dead Animals, or the Curious Occurrence of Taxidermy in Contemporary Art.'' David Winton Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. 23 Jan – 27 Mar 2016 * ''Ecce animalia.'' Museum of Contemporary Sculpture, Poland. 8 March – 15 June 2014 * ''Points de vue d’artistes.'' Universcience Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, Paris, France. 23 September 2013 – 1 March 2014 * ''Unnatural Natural History.''

Royal West of England Academy The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is Bristol's oldest art gallery, located in Clifton, Bristol, near the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Situated in a Grade 2* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition progr ...

(RWA), Bristol, UK. 14 July – 23 Sept 2012 * ''Controversy: The power of art.''

Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery is a public art gallery on the Mornington Peninsula, south-east of Melbourne, Australia. The gallery opened in 1971, and holds both traditional and contemporary Australian art. The gallery is host to the Nat ...

, Victoria, Australia. 21 June – 12 Aug 2012 * ''The Enchanted Forest.'' Strychnin Gallery, Berlin, Germany, May 13 – 5 June, and Musei Civici, Palazzo S. Francesco, Reggio Emilia, Italy, 17 June – 31 Aug 2011 * ''Reconstructing the Animal.'' Plimsoll Gallery, University of Tasmania, Centre for the Arts, Australia. 18 March – 15 April 2011 * ''The Enchanted Palace.'' Cabinet of Curiosities. Kensington Palace, London. Mar–Nov, 2010 * ''Creature Discomforts''. The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū, Nelson, NZ. 13 May – 21 June 2009 * ''The Idea of the Animal.'' Melbourne International Arts Festival.

RMIT Gallery RMIT Gallery is an Australian public art gallery located in Melbourne, Victoria. It is the main art gallery of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). RMIT Gallery opened on 16 March 1977. It is housed in the historic section of St ...

, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. 12 Aug – 18 Nov 2006 * ''Animal Nature.'' Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA. 26 Aug – 2 Oct, 2005 '' '' * ''Animality.''

Blue Oyster Art Project Space Blue Oyster Art Project Space, located in Dunedin’s city centre, is a space that presents contemporary experimental art projects. Blue Oyster included over 1,000 artists in more than 270 projects over its first 10 years and it continues to prov ...

'','' Dunedin, New Zealand. 24 June – 5 July 2003

References

External links

Angela Singer websiteAnimal Nature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singer, Angela Living people 1966 births 21st-century sculptors 20th-century British sculptors 20th-century English women artists 21st-century English women artists Anti-vivisectionists English activists English animal rights activists English women activists People from Essex University of Auckland alumni New Zealand women artists

Education

Art

Activism

Exhibitions

See also

References

Further reading

External links