I Like America and America Likes Me

I Like America and America Likes Me was a 1974 performance piece by German artist Joseph Beuys. For three days, Beuys lived in a New York City gallery with a live coyote, separated by a wire fence. He saw this as a symbolic confrontation with American cultural values and the historical mistreatment of Native Americans, as the coyote is a significant spirit being for many Indigenous peoples. Beuys used felt and fat in his work, materials that became recurring motifs after a World War II plane crash where he was wrapped in these substances to restore his body heat. His art often involved ritualistic actions and unconventional materials, challenging the materialism of consumer culture and American Minimalism.12