September 25, 2024

Menagerie: Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum
Exploring the Interdependence between Humans and Animals

Earlier this month, the Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College opened its recent exhibition Menagerie:Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum. On view through June 8, the large survey showcasing hundreds of artworks and artifacts drawn from the museum’s collection, Menagerie explores how humans have employed animal iconography across all areas of cultural production, from the ancient world to the present day. The exhibition includes works that engage with animal imagery for symbolic, cultural, ceremonial, and religious purposes; as decorative motifs; and to comment—often satirically—upon human relations and events.

Images of insects, fish, birds, and mammals operate as symbols and subjects—from their use as signifiers in cultural and religious contexts, to the documentation of creatures for study or entertainment. Representations of animals have been used to project a sense of power, embody certain virtues or vices, and for decoration, among other purposes. In the exhibition, as in nature, some animals may be difficult to spot, while others exist only in myth and legend.

The exhibition’s film by Brett Novak, draws attention to the scope of the Wellin’s collection and its impact on the museum faculty that engage with it:

Menagerie encourages us to consider the scope, meaning, and value of our interactions with animals, and, most importantly, to recognize our implicit interdependence. While the exhibition primarily focuses on nonhuman creatures, every object on view is the result of human creative effort and the depiction of each animal is filtered through its maker’s consciousness. 

The objects in Menagerie reveal the complex, and sometimes volatile, interconnection between animals and humans. Moreover, some of these artworks illustrate the considerable stress humans have placed on our shared ecosystem. In examining the enduring bond between people and animals, Menagerie not only provides an avenue for imagining a sustainable future, but one in which humans and the natural world might find balance.

Learn more about the exhibition and be sure to follow on social media for more news, programming, and video features.