ABSTRACT
Throughout history, Western cultures have appropriated animals for their animal powers and spirits and treated them like economic resources to increase their socio-economic performance. In twentieth-century competitive capitalism, the progressive advancement of humans’ reproductive activities with animal work has generated the perception that living beings can perform like machines. Drawing on Marxist analysis (Marx, Sohn-Rethel, Federici), this chapter analyses how Robert Morris's performance Pace and Progress (1969), Mark Wallinger's A Real Work of Art (1992–94), and Tamara Grcic's Turf (1999) provide critical insights into the ethics implicit in the performance practice of horse racing (a sportive form of societal dressage), and the leisure time economy around it, through their translation of physical experiences into photographic images.
