Sorry the pictures are blurry; she’s sewing chicken skin to her breasts and genitals if it’s not clear. I do not know the context or meaning so if please feel free to add that to the comments if you know!
A profound performance?
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Comments
167 responses to “A profound performance?”
I’m going to KFC for dinner.
hot!
Toser: I’ve worked in many kitchens. Every time after handling raw chicken we washed our hands. Is it really that hard to imagine?
_Stigmata_, the difference between animals and plants is that animals have pain receptors and a central nervous system, plants do not. The ‘what about the plants’ joke is tired, old, and stupid.
That said, a dead chicken is a dead chicken. If it’s being eaten or used for art it makes no difference to me, but sewing decomposing flesh (and i’ts not living, so it is decomposing) onto your body is just gross and unsanitary. I don’t understand how anyone could see this as a good idea.
A couple of thoughts.
1. I suspect I’m liable to get flamed for this but if the chicken was just slaughtered, chop chop, over and dead, nice and quick, I don’t give a rip.
2. #44, I agree with those who’ve mentioned your post: You win.
3. #46, if by “priviledge (sic) for it to be used as art instead” you’re implying that you hold art to be somehow “higher” or “nobler” than sustaining life, I have to disagree. I’m not bothered by what she’s doing with the skin but it looks like the entire chicken is hanging there in the one pic — if she didn’t eat it later that’s wasted food and that bothers me.
4. #55, whether or not you’d get complaints depends on whether or not the individual in question has read up to 1998 in the applicable literature. See my next point.
5. #102, you haven’t kept up with the literature. Go to google and do a search using the string, “journal biological chemistry aspirin plant suffering”. Plants can not only feel pain, some of them — such as the acacia tree — can warn others of their species when they feel pain.
“I am totally for people messing with their own bodies.
But when you bring animals into it I just don’t think that it’s right.
But that’s just my oppinion. ”
That’s exactly what I was gonna say, Rachael. This to me is the same as seeing this woman wearing a fur coat. Both are useless waste of animals and unnecessary deaths. I’ve never really had a negative impression for anything in modblog, but I really can’t see something positive in this.
some type of statement as to how women are made out to be “pieces of meat”?
104. katie you are an idiot. for one the chicken was dead so it had no pain involved in becoming this art piece. it was dead. who cares. and if you ever watched tv they had a special on where they did tests and proved the plants knew when they were picked and felt it. comparing a dead chicken to a dead human is just fucked up too. the human was not intended to be eaten. when they start sellin people for food you better believe ill have all kinds of classic pictures taken with them. and who is to say this was not just a way for the girl to prepare her chicken before she ate it. does anyone know what became of this poor beheaded dead chicken. i mean christ …put a nice sweater on it cause it looks cold. dont want that chicken to get sick afterall
Oops! My point #5 (giving a Google search string that brings up information on research results indicating that some species of plants can warn others of their kind when they feel pain) was posted in response to post #104 (Katie), OBVIOUSLY not in response to #102 (Max Brand). Sloppy typing on my part…
Um. I like her shoes?
This is worse than killing animals for consumption. At least when animals are eaten they are being used for a very valid reason: sustenance. Using dead animals for “art” just seems wrong.
Animals are also dead when we use them for fur, and I find that equally as disgusting as this.
Im gonna guess shes either high or insane.
For all the people that are saying that this is stupid, dangerous, and that she should be committed for doing this… Please note the case of Chris Burden, a performance/visual artist. In 1971 he had a friend shoot him with a handgun at a distance of approximately 15′, in front of spectators, as a work of performance art. What if his accomplice had accidentally missed his arm (the target), and hit him in the torso? Hell, what if the bullet had shattered his humerus, or his scapula?
The point is, he knew that it was very risky, and that he could be crippled or killed, but that he would certainly be badly injured. (Okay, it was only a .22LR, but those can still be quite fatal.)
Why assume that she didn’t know the potential consequences of her actions before she took them? As a work of performance art, it makes a very interesting statement, and the potential of serious injury or death to the artist makes it, in some ways, more profound.
And finally, to the vegans out there… You have your choice, and I respect it. If you don’t want to eat meat, wear leather, use products or medication tested on animals, wonderful. But it’s like religion: DON’T FUCKING PUSH IT ON OTHER PEOPLE! Seriously. Get over yourselves, and quit acting morally superior because you made a choice that you felt was right for you. (Hint: the world isn’t black and white, and what works for you doesn’t work for everyone else on the world. Yes, Virginia, there is moral ambiguity.) You made your choice, I made mine, quit trying to change everyone’s mind, and I’ll quit sneaking bacon into your salads.
Performer:
NO NO NO! I simply *cannot* work without my red chicken buckets, my stilettos and who hid my goddamn hair bleach!? Seriously! I don’t have time for this! I have to work on my blanket stitch! Oh Dammit, where did I put the needles?!
i looked at this and saw 114 comments and i was like shit someone is fighting again! LOL and when i got on here and saw all the long comments i was like yup! sorry thought it was kinda funny…
oh and
chicken breasts?? sorry … made me laugh
I just noticed that someone elce has the same name as me on here.
Chickens are a vital link in nature’s chain and that’s why we use them to play chicken-ball in the house!
Fuck peta and fuck vegans. Did you hear how peta killed a bunch of dogs and threw them in a dumpster?
http://www.petakillsanimals.com
I like this picture.
….lets just say the pervious post was spoken with all the wit and wisdom of a giant cup who once won a free lobotomy… because it was….
…. Its more along the lines of “fuck preformance art, because its too fuckin wierd and generally pretentious if it means anything at all.” That is, if we’re going to be fucking things.
….lets just say the post 117 was spoken with all the wit and wisdom of a giant cup who once won a free lobotomy… … mostly because it kinda was….
…. Its more along the lines of “fuck preformance art, because its too fuckin wierd and generally pretentious if it means anything at all.” That is, if we’re going to be fucking things.
Go 113 for telling it like it is…..and for those how can’t understand her willingness to preform: To each there own.
Dead chickens really really don’t have emotions….it is the truth
I looked it up on google.
this piece is a tongue and cheek commentary on the phrase “piece of meat”. im also assuming that there is a highly femminist motivation behind the work. it expands on the concept that woman will alter their body to the most disturbing degree to make themselves more desirable. i think there is an interesting didactic between power relations she creates between her and the animal and her and the audience as well as animal and audience. i would actually assume that this artist would be a vegetarian of some degree.
I’m sat here laughing.
Firstly, how people can think sewing raw chicken to the body is an art form – the people who think this need to get a life, and may I suggest a visit to a shrink. Perhaps if you all go together he may consider a group discount.
Secondly, If this female is so stupid to sew pieces of raw chcken to herself, then any disease she gets is well deserved. And I hope she pays for her own medical care out of her performing fee, why should the rest of us tax payers pick up the bill.
Thirdly, Is she so desperate to get attention she needs to do this, she needs to get out more, and join the party going to see the shrink.
Fourthly, Has the woman got her head rammed up her ass and has not seen all the reports of bird flu on the news. What does she want to do contract it and start an outbreak.
Please for her own sake and sanity someone drag her off to the shrink by force if necessary, its for her own good.
God in heavens knows what she will come up with next in the name of performing art *shudders*.
Empress, I have a feeling this lady would be as likely to catch SARS as she is the bird flu.
The only thing that disturbs me about this photo is the likelihood of her breaking her ankles with those massive shoes.
Says a lot about the state of the world today that everyone is ranting about animal rights… but very few people are considering the message of the performance – that women are so often treated like pieces of meat.
Frankly, while a prominent Muslim cleric describes millions of oppressed women as “meat”, I don’t care about one dead chicken.
Em,
I’m sure a lot of people could appreciate the message females are treated like pieces of meat. I count myself extremely lucky to live in a society where females are mostly treated well, bar some acceptions of course, which is just ‘life’ as some would say.
Ok, she wants to make a public statement that protests about females being treated like meat. But really actually piercing her own skin with a needle and risking that level of infection. Come on, do you handle raw chicken then carry on without washing your hands, I think not bud!
Make the statement, using friggin blu-tack if you gotta stick dead animal flesh on yourself.
Im being serious do you consider this the act of someone whos got all their marbles in place?
Empress, I hardly think anyone deserves to get sick just because they do something you don’t like. God forbid someone uses an animal in a way that hasn’t been approved by you.
Jenny,
Breaking her ankles in those shoes would be a minor inconvience compared with the level of infection she’s risking.
Tell me Jenny, like I said to Em, do you prepare raw chicken and put your fingers into your mouth without washing them?
Hannah,
To be perfectly honest with you I could not careless whether she gets sick or not, she’s not part of my life.
She gets sick thats her business, I just hope she dosnt go trying to get health care free off us tax payers to reverse her own stupid behaviour!
I wish I knew the meaning of this performance.
Excuse me while I staple veal to my cock.
Ant,
If you need any help with that give me a shout, I have a lovely heavy hammer and a 6 inch nail, rusty at that – it would be my pleasure to be of service to you 🙂
Ant/Empress – Please send me the pictures, sounds hot. 😉
Would be my pleasure shannon, I’m all posied here with the hammer strangly enough Ant seems to have disappeared !
*whistle* Hey Ant come out where ever you are 🙂
I was replying to the comment “If this female is so stupid to sew pieces of raw chcken to herself, then any disease she gets is well deserved.” We also don’t know what country this lady lives in – she could very easily live somewhere like South Africa, where she would have to pay for any medical bills herself. I also don’t think “my taxes could pay for her health care” is a very good argument. I can think of lots of things people do that could just as easily lead to a nasty infection, and I doubt many people would deny them NHS treatment because of it.
The bottom line seems to be that you don’t like what this woman has done, so you feel justified to call her stupid and mentally unstable. I don’t see why “I don’t like it” wouldn’t have been enough.
I can’t imagine the conniption some of the commenters here would have if they were exposed to Hermann Nitsch.
yes i have worked in many kitchens too. and i sincerely doubt that every single time you, and all of your coworkers touched raw chicken they practised safe handwashing guidelines. you can speak for yourself, but not everyone else.
i was the best handwasher at every restraunt i worked at. i observed anyways. i know how important it is, but yes it is hard to imagine that every single person working with raw chicken in every restaurant washed their hands properly every single time they touched raw chicken.
just sayin’
just to be contrary: I LOVE IT!!!!
Shannon, you should defently post some of his stuff.
I remember the first time I came across his work it was of a crucifixion and then the next picture was him slaughtering a goat(I’m assuming that’s what it was I really couldn’t tell) then ripping it apart at the ribcage.
Hermann Nitsch is the man.
No dout.
First look reminded me a great of deal of Meat Joy a classic performance piece by Schneeman (I believe)
I EAT MEAT AND I LIKE IT. JUST SAYING.
I eat meat that’s enjoyed a happy life before it became meat. The animal wouldn’t have been alive to enjoy that life without a market for meat, anyway. I don’t eat meat from badly treated animals.
Gods, I thought we’d got past the “modders who I don’t approve of must be mentally unstable” phase. Yes, it might be dangerous. But we DRIVE CARS.
I am saddened to live in a world where a picture of a naked woman sewing chicken skin onto her naughty bits generates 141 comments. BARKEEP, CHILL PILLS ALL AROUND!
Em, referring to your comment in #124, what ‘prominent’ Muslim cleric referred to women as meat? Not that I don’t believe you – but it shouldn’t be the cleric you’re accussing, but the whole Arabian Muslim view of women.
i assumed she was just showing off her sewing techniques
#143 – It was Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali.
He’s an Australian cleric and was actually condemned by a number of Australian Islamic groups, so you can’t say his views are particularly shared by all in that in religion.
See the performance ‘Meat Joy’ by Carolee Schneeman.
I reccomend Wikipedia/googling her. A very interesting and provocative artist.
Yrs,
R>
somebody sew some chicken skin on to her face.
then i’d hit it.
i give a fuck about the chicken. i just don’t get it.
i understand that art is subjective but some of this “art” apears as if its done by people who simply have no solid ideas.
hmmm.. i’ll sew chicken skin to my chest and crotch and i’ll think of some really abstract reasoning behind it to give it some semblance of meaning.
i guess there’s a niche crowd that thinks this crud is genious and enjoys it. i really wish one of them would help explain it to me because i don’t like thinking im outside, looking in, not knowing what the fuck is going on
untill then i guess i’ll just think this person is retarded and may aswell be shoving fajita meat up her cunt and then shooting it back out onto tortillas… actually i think that would be way cooler than sewing chicken skin onto yourself and people could eat the fajita afterwards
As long as we continue to demonstrate violence towards those weaker than us, we are all unruly savages.
If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.
Honestly.
I don’t think that there is any “bigger point” or meaning behind this. I think it was done for only one purpose, to entertain.