Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Hunter Gatherer Panel Discussion
Featuring participating artists Nicholas Crombach, Emily Jan, Philippa Jones, and Meryl McMaster
Moderated by Dr. Helen Gregory
November 17, 2022, 7:00 pm EST on Zoom
Hunter Gatherer is a meditation on the complex network of relationships between hunting and collecting in the context of the museum. With an emphasis on representations of the animal body, artists Nicholas Crombach, Emily Jan, Philippa Jones, and Meryl McMaster consider this dynamic from art historical and postcolonial perspectives. The exhibition creates points of intersection through references to sport hunting; acquisition, power, and dominance; decadence and excess; still life and vanitas painting; and institutional critique. Depictions of the hunted animal body are common throughout art history – particularly during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries – and are closely linked to the human desire to control nature. In addition, many of the taxidermy animals held in museum collections were acquired through hunting. This occurred during a period of intense development of natural history collections, which mirrored an era of colonial expansion. Hunting in the colonies was viewed as both sport and scientific pursuit, and many hunters justified their killing by claiming an interest in scholarly pursuits and in acquiring specimens for scientific collections. Some of these hunted animals came to form the basis of collections in natural history museums. Such collections are now subject to a rethinking and re-evaluating of their value and meaning, given that they can be perceived as metonymic to the colonial project itself. The work in this exhibition encourages us to reflect on past and present relationships with animals in an age when we are increasingly attuned to the notion of interspecies relations and kinship.
Hunter Gatherer runs from September 22 to December 10, 2022 at McIntosh Gallery. More information at mcintoshgallery.ca
Recorded and published with the permission of all participants.
© All rights reserved to the speakers, 2022
McIntosh Gallery acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through its The Museums Assistance Program (MAP), the Canada Council for the Arts through its Assistance to Art Museums and Public Galleries Program, the Ontario Arts Council, the London Arts Council, Western University, Foundation Western, and our donors.
Hunter Gatherer Panel Discussion
Featuring participating artists Nicholas Crombach, Emily Jan, Philippa Jones, and Meryl McMaster
Moderated by Dr. Helen Gregory
November 17, 2022, 7:00 pm EST on Zoom
Hunter Gatherer is a meditation on the complex network of relationships between hunting and collecting in the context of the museum. With an emphasis on representations of the animal body, artists Nicholas Crombach, Emily Jan, Philippa Jones, and Meryl McMaster consider this dynamic from art historical and postcolonial perspectives. The exhibition creates points of intersection through references to sport hunting; acquisition, power, and dominance; decadence and excess; still life and vanitas painting; and institutional critique. Depictions of the hunted animal body are common throughout art history – particularly during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries – and are closely linked to the human desire to control nature. In addition, many of the taxidermy animals held in museum collections were acquired through hunting. This occurred during a period of intense development of natural history collections, which mirrored an era of colonial expansion. Hunting in the colonies was viewed as both sport and scientific pursuit, and many hunters justified their killing by claiming an interest in scholarly pursuits and in acquiring specimens for scientific collections. Some of these hunted animals came to form the basis of collections in natural history museums. Such collections are now subject to a rethinking and re-evaluating of their value and meaning, given that they can be perceived as metonymic to the colonial project itself. The work in this exhibition encourages us to reflect on past and present relationships with animals in an age when we are increasingly attuned to the notion of interspecies relations and kinship.
Hunter Gatherer runs from September 22 to December 10, 2022 at McIntosh Gallery. More information at mcintoshgallery.ca
Recorded and published with the permission of all participants.
© All rights reserved to the speakers, 2022
McIntosh Gallery acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through its The Museums Assistance Program (MAP), the Canada Council for the Arts through its Assistance to Art Museums and Public Galleries Program, the Ontario Arts Council, the London Arts Council, Western University, Foundation Western, and our donors.
