Feast and Famine
The Feast and Famine exhibition in the Paul Robeson Galleries features food as a symbolism of the social and political problems in our society. Various artists create pieces that target audiences who are experiencing bodily changes in order to fit in with the "ideal" look on social media. Some artists create pieces about ethnicities and economic statuses. One subject that intrigued me in this exhibition was the installations of the usage of animals. Some of us like to chow down on meat or use certain animals to gather resources. With animal activists, such as the ASPCA or Peta, fighting for animal rights, sometimes society has a conflict to either save certain species or let species go extinct. Animal rights have been a huge political conflict in America and other parts of the world.
I have chosen the Emu Flag and Cloak by Maria Fernanda Cardoso. Emus are a type of bird species that are located in Australia. Like an Ostrich, Emus are similar in stature but are a tad bit smaller with dark beige feathers and an iridescent blue neck. According to Bush Heritage, Emus were killed due to damaging wheat crops and to provide meat in the 1990s. Now, Emus are protected with several sanctuaries to keep natural predators away. Since Emus favor wheat and seeds, they contributed to spreading crops through their droppings. Maria Fernanda Cardoso is a Colombian artist who lives in Australia. The Emu Flag and Cloak is one of her few pieces from her exhibition Emu Wear. This exhibition is in Berenice Steinbaum Gallery in Miami, Florida: "Maria Fernanda Cardoso, a Colombia living in Australia, utilizes the National Emblem of Australia to identify with the local culture. The emu, the national bird, provides Cardoso with a way to form an understanding of the Australian landscape and the means to survive within it. She explores the importance of camouflage, sacrifice and the intersection of defining symbols."
I found this piece to be interesting because Cardoso's goal is to make the audience question about our choices to appeal to our society. Some of us go as far as to skin, declaw, poach, or pluck animals in order to be fashionable. This issue reminds me of a quote from Nato Thompson's Seeing Power, "What we like, what we do, what we listen to, what we dream about, the world we around us-is increasingly controlled by huge and complex economic forces". Most of us do not know the specific process that is used in order to make our clothing and accessories. The biggest issue is the fact that most animals can benefit us naturally, but most of us do not have enough information on what these animals do and need, which causes conflict and the threat of extinction. We're so blinded by what items are worn by who and those items made from animals become a demand. This connects to my project because I am focusing primarily on the lack of information given to people about animals. Animals have roles to ensure the flourishment of natural resources, most of us take that for granted.
The second piece I have chosen is called What it Once Was by Tamara Kostianovsky. I was a bit freaked out when I first saw this installation because it looked too much like an animal carcass on a meat hook. I took a closer look and saw that this sculpture was mainly made out of old clothing. Kostainovsky's goal in this piece was to target consumer culture. Our issue in consumer culture is having the addiction of buying items excessively, but never be truly satisfied. We hoard these items in hopes to feel happy, but we throw them away, like the clothing we don't wear anymore. "Every day, the culture industry-movie studios, advertising firms, social media conglomerates, galleries, and so on-plucks the fruit of art and activism's labors, ingests it, and regurgitates a new substance for a voracious and growing nest of consumers around the world" (Thompson, Nato; Seeing Power, pg 3). It makes sense that the artist had formed the clothing into a carcass because we consume for satisfaction and leave a "useless" thing behind for someone else to consume. I feel like this can connect to my project because it visibly shows a faux animal carcass. I thought this was a creative sculpture piece to show our excessive consumption of animal meat as well.
Citations
https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/emu
http://tolweb.org/treehouses/?treehouse_id=4729
http://mariafernandacardoso.com/homepage/animal-art/emu-wear-installation-show-at-berenice-steinbaum-gallery/
(2 quotes) Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century by Nato Thompson; Chapter 1, page 3
https://tamarakostianovsky.com/news.html
I found this piece to be interesting because Cardoso's goal is to make the audience question about our choices to appeal to our society. Some of us go as far as to skin, declaw, poach, or pluck animals in order to be fashionable. This issue reminds me of a quote from Nato Thompson's Seeing Power, "What we like, what we do, what we listen to, what we dream about, the world we around us-is increasingly controlled by huge and complex economic forces". Most of us do not know the specific process that is used in order to make our clothing and accessories. The biggest issue is the fact that most animals can benefit us naturally, but most of us do not have enough information on what these animals do and need, which causes conflict and the threat of extinction. We're so blinded by what items are worn by who and those items made from animals become a demand. This connects to my project because I am focusing primarily on the lack of information given to people about animals. Animals have roles to ensure the flourishment of natural resources, most of us take that for granted.
The second piece I have chosen is called What it Once Was by Tamara Kostianovsky. I was a bit freaked out when I first saw this installation because it looked too much like an animal carcass on a meat hook. I took a closer look and saw that this sculpture was mainly made out of old clothing. Kostainovsky's goal in this piece was to target consumer culture. Our issue in consumer culture is having the addiction of buying items excessively, but never be truly satisfied. We hoard these items in hopes to feel happy, but we throw them away, like the clothing we don't wear anymore. "Every day, the culture industry-movie studios, advertising firms, social media conglomerates, galleries, and so on-plucks the fruit of art and activism's labors, ingests it, and regurgitates a new substance for a voracious and growing nest of consumers around the world" (Thompson, Nato; Seeing Power, pg 3). It makes sense that the artist had formed the clothing into a carcass because we consume for satisfaction and leave a "useless" thing behind for someone else to consume. I feel like this can connect to my project because it visibly shows a faux animal carcass. I thought this was a creative sculpture piece to show our excessive consumption of animal meat as well.
Citations
https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/emu
http://tolweb.org/treehouses/?treehouse_id=4729
http://mariafernandacardoso.com/homepage/animal-art/emu-wear-installation-show-at-berenice-steinbaum-gallery/
(2 quotes) Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century by Nato Thompson; Chapter 1, page 3
https://tamarakostianovsky.com/news.html
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