CODA251Swanson’s critique of human/animal/environment relations and the
different epistemic avenues through which we make sense of intercon-
nectedness through the rediscovery of bougonia, and the biological reg-
isters of animal rendering, are further problematized in this installation
by two other pieces featuring ten miniature simulacra of cowhides and
two preserved, full-size ones. Specimen Hides and Swarms deliberately
refer to the ontologies of natural history, the positivist realism able to
reduce animals to surfaces. As seen in chapter 2, anthropologist Levi-
Strauss argued that the miniature is effectively a dedicated power/
knowledge operation: a deliberate reduction of the object of study aim-
ing at more easily grasping its element and essence. Through the recon-
figuration of this essential natural history totalization, Swanson points
to objectification through three symbolic gestures of reduction. Not
only are the miniature skins displayed by Swanson much smaller than
the originals, but they actually are small and intricately detailed paint-
ings shaped like hides (fig. C.3). Each measures three by two inches and
FIGURE C.3 Cole Swanson, Specimen Hides, 2015, from Out of the Strong, Something
Sweet. Exhibition curator Dawn Owen, 2016, Art Gallery of Guelph, Canada. Dean
Palmer Photography. © Cole Swanson.