I have been working on the topic of Cattle in Print, the Changing Pastoral, since taking a curatorial studies course in 2015. (Please refer to my earlier post to see my “virtual exhibition” resulting from my course research.) I find this topic so fascinating that I have returned to it a number of times — giving talks at Queens University, Carleton University, RIA, and most recently at the Northeast Popular Culture Association annual conference held in October 2022. My presentation was in the NRPCA Animals and Culture stream, chaired by Donna Varga of Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS. The Animal in Culture stream explores the complex and multifaceted intersections between animals, animal representations, society and popular culture. It is wonderful to have found a community of like-minded academics and artists who really do believe that animals are valid subjects of art, research, and academic discourse.
I decided to make a video of my presentation. You can see it here.
Abstract
Looking at art and visual culture through an ecocritical lens can shed light on humanity’s changing relationship with nature and the non-human world over the centuries leading up to our present planetary challenges. Framed in ecocritical art history, the paper examines the interplay between the visual representation of cattle and country life in the medium of the pastoral print and the implementation of modern agricultural systems. Rooted in antiquity, the pastoral representation of idyllic nature has soothed, amused and ameliorated anxieties over the centuries. With the Renaissance and the rise of mercantilism, printmaking, which is an artform of multiples, made the pastoral image available to wider audiences. With the socio-economic changes brought about by the agricultural and industrial revolutions in the 17th to 19th centuries and beyond, the popular pastoral print continued to wield political power by romanticising nature and idealizing forms of agriculture already obsolete. Since the mid 20th century and the “green revolution,” the pastoral trope, has been regarded as quaint and obsolete. Nevertheless, it remains ubiquitous and so ingrained in culture that it can no longer be detected. Promoted in literature, visual culture and advertising, the pastoral trope continuously bombards adult and child audiences, reinforcing outmoded values and a sense of entitlement. While some contemporary artists and ecocritical writers are working towards changing the visual rhetoric, the pastoral trope remains deeply entrenched in Western visual culture and an obstacle to mounting a collective response to climate change.