Live snails used in art exhibition spark controversy

Controversial artist Tinkebelle (aka Katinka Simonse) has done it again: she’s collected some 1,000 live snails and glued colourful buttons and beads on their shells, which will be part of an exhibition opening this Thursday about animals at the VillaZebra children’s museum in Rotterdam. The usual animal groups are of course very upset. I’m surprised the museum is all cool with this and I wonder what parents are going to tell their kids.

The idea is that by turning the snail shells into artworks, the artist makes the snails special and even gives them personality. That is her explanation. Last year we had the hamsters going round and round for hours in balls that was judged OK after all by the courts, and then there’s always the famous cat hand bag she made that went viral.

From 2010, here’s a video with English subtitles about why she killed her own cat (and didn’t let the vet do it) and more.

I’m not a fan, but she really knows how to get people’s attention.

(Link: www.rnw.nl, Photo of Snails by davepatten, some rights reserved)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Animals, Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Tags: Rotterdam, snails, Tinkebell