


Art for Our Sake–Conceptual realism meets extinction art
The idea that we need to replace the paradigm of Art for Art’s Sake with Art for Our Sake is one that, fortunately, resonates with some artists today. Tasmanian artist, Lucienne Rickard, is one of those. She recently provided a great example with her project “Extinction Studies,” a performance art piece prepared for the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Rickard’s project involved carefully drawing and then erasing large images of animals that have recently gone extinct. She did this in public over a 16 month period which began in September 2019. For most people, Rickard’s purpose and message were clear without further explanation, but she was explicit about it in