I’m sure there’s been some

I’m sure there’s been some reduction in the number of experiments on animals for such things as cosmetics but looking at the New Contemporaries I’m worried that young artists are taking up the slack. ‘Swarm’ is a wonderful piece but I wanted to know if all those flying insects died of natural causes, there’s a triptych of pictures of foxes standing on hind legs (they may have been stuffed, I don’t know), Thomas Needham’s Untitled has whats left of a dead pheasant stuck to the canvas, there’s a video called Swan Upping – don’t know whats happening but it involves a load of swans. Also some photos of monkeys, again, I don’t know whats going on but they look like they’re inside horrible wooden crates. Is this representative of this years college output or are the selectors especially keen on exploitation of animals.
There’s also the horse in the Trigger video (at the Bluecoat) which was very much alive and I’m sure was just as shit-scared as the staff and guests it bumped into as it was led round the Adelphi with cameras strapped to its body. Especially when it was taken out onto the balcony above the noisy city centre.