Honey Bee, the Lone Survivor, Checking on Willly Wally, from "The Four Year War at Gombe" series
Maker
Ruttan, Alison
American, b. 1954
Date2009
MediumInkjet print
Dimensionsframe: 21 in x 31 in
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number2011:141
About the ArtistInformed by the biological sciences and social theory, Alison Ruttan’s multidisciplinary practice examines the psychology of behavior expressed visually through physiological response. Accordingly, much of her work focuses on appetite, sexuality, and aggression, alternating between serious and humorous engagement in asking the question: “what is human?” The Four Year War at Gombe is a series of photographs that illuminate behavioral links between humans and other primates. The images depict people acting out scientist Jane Goodall’s accounts of a Tanzanian chimpanzee community that she observed for many years in the 1960s and 1970s. After living in peaceful cohabitation, the chimp community inexplicably broke into two, with one faction waging a long-term, calculated war on the other. In vignetted scenes of both peaceful, bucolic existence and blood-drenched massacre, Ruttan’s pictures of people behaving like apes reveal a blurred distinction between animal and human behavior. Alison Ruttan completed a BFA at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1976), and an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1992). Ruttan has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, IL; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL; Ampersand International Arts, San Francisco, CA; Gallery Wit, Wageningen, the Netherlands; Directors Lounge, Berlin, Germany; and The Drawing Center, New York, NY. She is the recipient of several awards, including an artist residency at Wild Animal Park, Escondido, CA (2005); Art & Technology Residency, Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus (2004); Visual Artist Awards, Illinois Arts Council (1993, 1996, 2002); and Faculty Enrichment Grants, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1997, 2000). Ruttan is a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
![In Florence’s last months, when she could no longer go out to the Botanic Garden for dinner, our dear friends Josh and Signe Murphy and their daughters India and June came over with all the necessary provender and utensils, and cooked complete meals for us three or four times. When Florence died I solved some of the problem of what to do with her clothes by giving a bunch to 15 year old India. India adored Florence - and was thrilled to inherit her favorite skirt and sport jacket. [...]](/internal/media/dispatcher/4591/thumbnail)
Lyon, Danny
1967-1969, printed c.1980
