Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

This paper challenges the notion of art practice as a wholly human-centred endeavour and argues that it can also be viewed as the site of a collaborative relationship between multiple agents, including those defined as “other-than-human persons.” Drawing from new animist theory, it discusses works and mediums as agented persons and makes a case for the de-centralising of the human hand and the de-objectifying of art objects. The findings of this paper are experienced-based and premised on my own art practices and have theoretical grounding in the discussions of animism, agency and personhood by several key scholars, including Alfred Hallowell, Nurit Bird-David, Robert Wallis, Barbara Bender and Paul Taçon. At its core, this paper focuses on the evolution of a relationship - that of mine with stone – and discusses how a shift in perspective from creator to collaborator has profoundly affected not only my understandings of the ways in which personhood and agency are manifest throughout the elements of the natural world but also how I see my place and role as an artist: as one participant in a collaborative relationship, the purpose of which, as Robert Wallis suggests, is the negotiation of harmony.