Art and science working together

And indeed I thought it was as I set off to the press preview at the 2-yearly contemporary art show last week. If I found little of relevance to readers, I decided, I could always hark back to past masters such as George Stubbs who dissected horses to learn about their anatomy before painting exquisite equestrian works. Or more recently Damian Hirst who, along with his assistants in his Gloucestershire art factory, bisected cows before plunging them into tanks of formaldehyde.

But I couldn't have been more wrong. Animals, wild and domestic, swarm the collective psyche of many of this year's artists. Often they use animals to explore human civilization in crisis and our place in the world. In the Danish pavilion is Taryn Simon's photograph of a captive white tiger called Kenny. In the USA these strange beasts are bred for their white and black fur, pink noses and blue eyes. Kenny has these desirable traits but as a consequence of inbreeding is also mentally retarded, physically disabled and cannot breathe comfortably. Simon's photo seems to challenge just how clever we are.