DO YOU EAT MEAT?
00;00;00;17 - 00;00;18;05
WHEN I WAS YOUNGER,
I USED TO PRETEND I WAS A TIGER WHENEVER I ATE MEAT
People who have dealt with any amount of inner turmoil around the decision to eat meat can probably relate to my story.
Like many other people, I learned about the meat industry through shock value videos of factory farms when I was around ten years old.
00;00;18;07 - 00;00;36;27
And from that point on, eating meat suddenly became a source of shame and anxiety for me.
It never seemed to have a clear answer, and the more I prodded at the subject, the more confusing it got.
CARNIVORE GAMES was an opportunity for me to bring these anxieties out of my head and create a welcoming space for dialogue around them.
00;00;37;00 - 00;01;00;16
I wanted for this exhibition to be very playful and fun so that people felt comfortable engaging with it.
In addition to the paintings and digital prints, I use stuffed animals, fabrics, broken jewelry, calendar pages and other scrap materials to make the installation pieces.
Around the room, you'll find carnivores eating prey, pigs ready for slaughter, chickens in killing cones.
00;01;00;19 - 00;01;25;02
I share stories about the first time I saw guts and my evolving relationship to eating meat.
There are some comical elements too, not only to balance out the seriousness of the topic, but also because I do find a lot of the parts funny.
The logic behind the choices we make doesn't make sense a lot of the time.
Whether or not someone eats meat is often presented both as an identity and as a black and white issue.
00;01;25;04 - 00;01;49;18
My hope with this exhibition was to bring some nuance to the subject.
I don't have the answers. I don't think the issue of human meat consumption is one that can be solved by individual people's actions.
But I think it's important for us to be honest about what's going on.
We can accept the reality of the situation we're in while being understanding and empathetic towards the choices that we're all making to survive.
