Today is the last day of The Sexual Politics of Meat Exhibition at The Animal Museum, LA. The exhibition followed on from the book The Art of the Animal, eds Kathryn Eddy, LA Watson and Janell O’Rourke, Lantern Press, 2015. It has been, and continues to be an amazing project to be involved with.
Fangirl moment: these two pictures are truly amazing and continue to delight me – on the left Professor Lori Gruen author of Entangled Empathy, sits beneath and also discusses boobscape for a video on Animaladies, Sydney, 2016. On the Right: Carol Adams (author of The Sexual Politics of Meat) and myself standing under a second much larger iteration of boobscape, installed as part of SPOM: Sexual Politics of Meat Exhibition, The Animal Museum 2017. Of course Gruen and Adams together also edited the incredible ‘Ecofeminism’, and have written many other influential and important texts. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to meet these women – I have to pinch myself!
I’ve just returned from 9 days in LA installing my work in The Sexual Politics of Meat exhibition at The Animal Museum, Arts District, DTLA. This exhibition follows on from the book The Art of the Animal, Lantern Press, 2015. The event opened on Saturday 25th, and the museum hosted a colloquium on Sunday 26th featuring a talk by Carol Adams (author of The Sexual Politics of Meat) and followed by a panel discussion led by Stephen Eisenmann with the artists present. The exhibition continues until mid-April.
The exhibition opening was covered by Jane Velez-Mitchell (Jane Unchained) and I have an interview in this portion: https://www.facebook.com/JaneVelezMitchell/videos/10158268492465693/ and a preview in the Huffington Post by Ellen Kanner http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/meatless-monday-the-art-of-the-animal-the-sexual_us_58a38d3ce4b0e172783aa1e
Here’s some installation shots of my work – I showed a new iteration of boobscape, 2016-17 and slink, 2014.
My trip to LA was made possible by an Australian Artist’s Grant:
The Australian Artists’ Grant is a NAVA initiative, made possible through the generous sponsorship of Mrs Janet Holmes à Court and the support of the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council for the Arts.
no matter how many notes I make – the weather, the latex age/batch, and just who knows what … conspire to affect the outcome – and most times these unknowables and uncontrollables are most welcomed – but when I really want a certain density / thickness to be reached so the boobs can hold their form without padding, and twice the casts have come off the mold too thin … it’s just too annoying
The Sexual Politics of Meat Exhibition is coming up soon at The Animal Museum. The exhibition itself will run from 26 February till 30 April 2017. I’ll be there for the install and opening weekend – and I’m thrilled at the line up of events – http://theanimalmuseum.com/events/spom-opening-weekend/
The Sexual Politics of Meat Exhibition: Opening Weekend Festivities
“How does someone become something?” – Fourteen contemporary women artists ask and explore this very question through a variety of media in The Sexual Politics of Meat, a landmark and thought-provoking exhibition presented by The Animal Museum and curated by Kathryn Eddy, Janell O’Rourke, and L.A. Watson.
EXHIBITION PROGRAMMING
Join us for an insightful weekend with the legendary Carol J. Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat, Dr. Stephen F. Eisenman, and the exhibition curators and artists.
OPENING RECEPTION
With special guests: SPOM author Carol J. Adams, Dr. Stephen F. Eisenman (author, The Cry of Nature: Art and the Making of Animal Rights), Martin Rowe (Lantern Books), and the exhibition curators and artists. PLUS live jazz music from Stray Dog Song, wine, beer and vegan bites.
SUNDAY COLLOQUIUM:
2 to 3:30 PM
“The history of the sexual politics of meat slide show: working with ARTISTS, liberating ideas and oppressive images” presented by Carol J. Adams, followed by a Q&A
The Slide Show provides an ecofeminist analysis of the interconnected oppressions of sexism, racism, and speciesism by exploring the way popular culture draws on dominant Western philosophical viewpoints regarding race, gender, and species. It identifies how meat has been a valued masculine-identified protein source and the ways that assumptions about meat eating reinforce a gender binary. It proposes that many meat advertisements are conduits for hate-speech against women and also that they offer ways to encode “whiteness” without being explicit.
4 to 5:00 PM
“Women, Animals, and Art” Panel Discussion
A rousing discussion with Carol J. Adams, the curators, and artists that address the theories found within the book. Panel moderator: Dr. Stephen Eisenman, author of The Cry of Nature: Art and the Making of Animal Rights
The new boobscape has finally finished – cast no.1 fairly simply with hanging rings for Selvedge #VAMFF, in March 2017. I will take some better photos when the sun comes out! In this work the boobscape has been laid out on the leather symbol and brings together the slink & boobscape series (slink: a type of luxury leather mostly taken from fetal calves). This boobscape makes the connection between the gendered exploitation of non-human animal bodies and the production of leather materials.
Below: photos just after pulling the cast off the mold. I love the rich colours of the reverse where latex meets plasticine – it would be great if it stayed so lush, the reverse of casts are always fascinating – this one reminds me of the sandstone rock formations around Sydney and fossils. When I laid it out on the table to powder it and pick of bits of non-skin – it felt like I was treating/tanning an animal skin, as the size and scale is like the whole tanned skin of a calf (the leather symbol coming from the simplification of the tanned skin of a large mammal).
