Animal Activists Closing Exhibitions

I recently found two articles/newspaper writings that dealt with the same artist: Adel Abdessemed, an Algerian, Paris based artists. The first one, Terror campaign by animal rights group forces closure of exhibition by Charmaine Picard published in Art Newspaper, May 2008, Vol. 17, p3-3; 1p,2008.

The exhibition was held at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) in March 2008. The curator, Hou Hanru had received numerous death threats by animal rights groups because the videos in the exhibition showed the killing of six animals. Abdessemed shot the videos in Mexico to show the documentation of traditional methods of food production. The animals were killed with the sledgehammer to their heads. The animal group, In Defense of Animals, set out emails to its members urging them to send letters for the exhibition to be taken down.

The group was classified as "extremists" by the president of SFAI, Chris Bratton. He said that the emails targeted the artist, staff, etc. It was shut down after one week of being open.

The artists' art dealer, David Zwirner said that the work was important political statement  to make people aware of what is going on with the war. The animals were consumed for food. It is also about how other cultures view death.

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My thoughts:
I am not sure how I completely feel about the method of how the animal rights group approached the exhibition. I would also like to see proof of how threatening the emails actually were. I am sure that some of them were really threatening, but I don't believe that all of them could be. Having the exhibition shut down does show that activists groups do have some power.

I do not agree with what the artist had done for his work. I feel that he could have approached the political subject matter in a more tasteful way without harming animals.

For my thesis, I am not sure if I will want to deal with animal rights groups and there impact on artists/exhibitions. It is really interesting to see how powerful a group can be. Also, I wonder if the animals rights group have taken a more direct approach against other artists.