In my piece, “Same in Life as in Death,” packaged scans of meat surround a place setting all on a blue and white tablecloth. Each package contains a print of a scan of various types of meat, such as cow, pig, chicken, and even human, folded and padded to imitate a three-dimensional consumer product. These packages look similar to a package of meat that anyone could find at a grocery store. One difference I made was that the pieces of meat are irregularly jumbled on the tray. I chose to do this to better imitate the crowded spaces for the animals within their pens long before deaths. Each image connects to the next by the way each is similarly scanned, similarly packaged with a black styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic wrap, and similarly labelled with the meat inspection stamp, barcode, and warning description. These trays surround a yellow, ceramic plate, accompanied by a knife and fork, the utensils necessary for eating meat, and a napkin containing the same information as on the labels. The entire ensemble hangs against a blue and white fabric made to imitate a tablecloth. This piece helps contain the installation and adds another factor of cohesiveness.
The two individuals who share the same interests in my work are Upton Sinclai and Jo-Anne McArther. Upton Sinclair, a journalist and writer in the late 1800s and early 1900s, wrote a novel, “The Jungle” in 1906 in which he illustrates the poor opportunities of the aspiring immigrant of the time. In his story, he describes the life of a newly married couple, Jurgis and Ona, in which Jugis comes to find work in a meat packing company. His experience at his job shocked the readers and has made the book a classic. Jo-Anne McArther takes another approach on mass animal farming as a photographer who focuses solely on animal-human interactions. In her photographic book “We Animals,” McArther displays the different instances in which humans use and interact with animals such as bullfighting, oil spills, circuses, racing, poaching, and even companionship. In addition, and more specifically towards my work, she has a series of images that display the poor living conditions of animals in CAFOs around the world. Sinclair focuses largely on the worker, and McArther emphasizes the animals’ perspectives. I chose to combine both due to the fact that both factors influenced me into choosing to refrain from eating factory farmed meat. One hundred years ago, Sinclair showed the world what was going on behind the delicious food consumers eat every day in hopes that something would change. Unfortunately, Jo-Anne McArther, along with many other concerned individuals, have proven that these issues are still very prevalent. Animals are cruelly grown in environments that do not enhance that animal’s health. Because these animals are receiving poor care, the diseases and bacteria spread to the world of the consumer, both through ingestion, pollution, and depletion of resources. I chose to focus my information on the conditions within the CAFOs and use the imagery to explain the transition to the world of the consumer. I chose to include the human hands as a meat product to introduce the poor conditions of the workers in a way that would shock the viewer. By including the human arms as a product to be eaten, I also hint at the concept of speciesism, the notion that some species are superior to others. I not only include the poor working conditions of CAFOs, but I also present the human hands to familiarize the viewer to the animals. This way, the viewer is forced to consider the animals in the same context as humans, the viewer is encouraged to see the animals as living, thinking, feeling creatures.
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AuthorFall 2016 Photography 2 Course Archives
December 2016
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