The tradition of incorporating living or formerly living materials into art stretches back thousands of years. These organic materials can include wood, bones, leaves, seedpods, shells, feathers, or other substances derived from plant or animal sources. The practice of using substances from nature falls within many art-making traditions from history. Many African cultures, for example, have integrated organic materials such as wood, ivory, and plant fibers into astonishing works of art. Often, these substances were used for their symbolic meaning as well as their physical properties.

In a contemporary context, the artist can create meaning by facilitating an encounter with a familiar material in a new context. Robert Smithson, an artist associated with the Land Art and Post-Minimalist movements, used natural objects in both his large-scale land installations, such as Spiral Jetty (1970), and his smaller museum installations made of stones and dirt removed from specific locations. Other artists have placed fully taxidermied animals within a sculptural framework. Robert Rauschenberg used a stuffed eagle in his 1959 work Canyon, while Damien Hirst shocked the art world with his large scale sculptures that featured taxidermied animals submerged in formaldehyde, calling the viewer to consider his or her own mortality. Other contemporary artists using organic materials include Nick Cave, Christy Rupp, Doug Starn and Mike Starn, Richard Long, Andy Goldsworthy, and Christiane Löhr.