Chickens to be publicly fostered, then slaughtered and eaten in art installation in my town. - Page 2

The animal to table part seems fine as people should know where thier food comes from but spinning this as art is a bit of desperation.

I'm all for showing how meat actually ends up on the table to people.  To most people, a cow or a chicken are just abstract ideas.  I talk to people all the time, otherwise nice caring people who have no clue that meat comes from a previously living being... They almost act like its a process that includes nothing unpleasant or violent - as if the chicken just "dies" without any help. 

I can see how some would call it art. Hard for me to call it art, I think of murals and carvings and the like. Living art... it's just different.

I think there should be an age limit on who can watch the end of the project. Let the parents think twice on the chicken nuggets, but don't send the kids home to have nightmares. The average 5 year old isn't going to grasp that the fluffy clucking chicken turns into fried chicken, they'll latch onto the killing part. Unless they were raised on a farm and already know the process. Even a 10 year old... if they're unfamiliar with the process they're not going to grasp it the same way as an adult would.

Once over dinner, a friend of mine eating chicken pasta, asked "You don't eat your chickens, do you? That seems cruel." Really? What's different about the chicken on your plate? It had a terrible factory life, never saw the sunlight, never ate grass. Is it different because it didn't have a name? A nameless number you never met in person? Never made eye contact with it?

Yes, people need to know where their food comes from. If you're going to eat chicken, you need to meet a chicken. You should pat a baby cow on the head if you're going to eat veal. You should know how it's produced.

If people wanted to know where their food comes from, they'll visit a farm. That's been available to those who want it through all of history. The people who live in denial, who will not seek out how things actually are, the only way they'll ever know is if someone makes a public spectacle of it.

Just the awareness that's been produced by the idea of it likely got some people thinking. Maybe the project will never happen. Maybe Animal Rights activists will stage one heck of spectacle themselves resulting in the freedom of these chickens. Public outcry saving their lives. It's the awareness the project stirs up that I like the most.

The difference between these chickens and other chickens? They won't be faceless. People care about them. Like them. Enjoy them. People will get emotional about these specific chickens. People will learn things about chickens they've never known before. Some may never eat chicken again. Some may do so differently. Others might go get their own chickens. Everyone is going to take it differently and react differently. But they're all going to be a little more aware.

Would it be cruel to have two chicken exhibits? Happy birds on grass, the other a building with viewing windows for people to look in on, and then after a certain amount of time, asking them which chickens they want to eat?

Or should it all be hidden away in secret and the chicken just shows up at the grocery store neatly packaged?

I don't know why people get there undies in a bunch about this sort of stuff....

In this city where is project is going to take place, literally thousands of chickens are eaten every day.  Those chickens live in much nastier places, and suffer more to get to the table than these five "art" chickens will.  People are so disconnected from not only their food, but all the dirty, nasty aspects of living that they have little clue about how things work.  It is sad that showing something as simple the fact that the meat we eat is a living creature, and that to eat it, it needs to be killed and processed, is considered offensive and disgusting.  I don't even object to letting children see it.  I don't think seeing the processing of animals, especially if explained, will harden or frighten children.

The appalling disconnect between eating meat and the fact that meat was a living, breathing animal is fairly recent, and in many ways uniquely American.  I eat meat, but I don't delude myself into thinking that the containers I get from the store or my farmer's market are somehow magically made.  I don't think it a bad thing for every carnivore to be one deliberately, and with the knowledge of what is involved.  If for city dwellers (like me) this means an "art" installation, so be it.

I also don't find the fact that these chickens will be raised as "pets" and then slaughtered in public any sadder than any other slaughter of animals for food.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChooksChick 

Both of the teens I talked to are chicken-people's kids (one is mine), and I was shocked at the lovely way they articulated themselves.

 

I think America doesn't want to know what's under the hood of their food. I think it could be less garish and don't think this will help people who are 'looking away' to face the real truths about eating flesh. I'm just not sure it's art. I could be a lot more artistic with that grant...

Well, good art gets people thinking... If this gets people thinking, then its done what art is supposed to do, and what most artists strive for. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChooksChick 

Both of the teens I talked to are chicken-people's kids (one is mine), and I was shocked at the lovely way they articulated themselves.

 

I think America doesn't want to know what's under the hood of their food. I think it could be less garish and don't think this will help people who are 'looking away' to face the real truths about eating flesh. I'm just not sure it's art. I could be a lot more artistic with that grant...

Many people have different thoughts on what art is. I am a graphic design major at a liberal arts college and we have always been taught that the best art gets people talking. Sure, there are pretty paintings out there, but some of the most memorable pieces are the ones that people talk about. Take Marcel Duchamp's urinal. He was a Dada artist that wanted to reinvent how people thought of art. He took a urinal, flipped it over, signed his name, and called it art. It received public criticism because most people did not think of it as art. However, it is still taught in schools because it was memorable. How about Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup. Personally, I don't like his work, but there are many people that will call him on of the greatest artists of his time.

To me, her showcase is art. It is a piece of work that will have people all over the country talking about it. It is controversial, but is being created to get a point across. She is putting herself out there, and will most likely be attacked by PETA, and other animal welfare groups. However, people will remember her for this. This will create an image, and get the artist community to recognize her. Most people are looking for some way to be recognized by the people they want to be, and this definitely will.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not so sure this qualifies as art under the definition I was taught.

Art has to be created with the intention of it being art. If she is building the coop, caring for the chickens, involved in the processing and/or helps cook them; then it is art. But I'll leave that up to the group funding her.

My suspicion is that there will be a public outcry, and there will be no public butchering. Or, if there is, it will turn into a debacle. And I doubt there will be any great awareness coming from it. It will fade from the public view swiftly.

I don't see much of a problem with it as long as the dispatching is humane.

Imp

I always think of art and talent in the same sentence but evidently my opinon is not as popular as others. I guess if I turn my toilet upside down and leave my signature "in" it I am an artist.   Now I have heard of a **** house poet.

Not trying to offend anyone but where do you find these people who don't know about chicken farms or where the meat at the grocery comes from? I come from a third word country and know all that information pretty well. I admit that we do live in a society that lacks knowledge but knowledge comes to those who seek it, specially in times when anything you want to know is one click away. In my personal opinion, to display chickens then kill them then eat is simply pointless...if you want to know where your food comes from, then spend a day at a chicken farm, or a dairy farm or a fishing boat, follow the real process of how that chicken at the store or the veal at your dinner table really goes through.

Having a fancy chicken coop, people interacting with them, blah, blah, blah makes no connection. A farmer appreciates and values the food on his table because he/she has invested time, knowledge, energy into his animals, he knows all the work that goes into raising the animal in order to make a meal out of it. Although I don't eat my chickens, I do consume the eggs but I appreciate them, not just because they come from my hens, but for the work and effort that goes prior to that egg is produced ie food, shelter, health, human interaction (happy animals does count.)

If someone doesn't know that the chicken at the store was alived at one point or let me put it this way, if someone doesn't know that a chicken comes from an egg then I'm sorry that is just plain stupidity. We all have a choice when in comes to the level of knowledge we posses and it shouldn't a public killing of animals in order for someone to learn.

I won't even go into that ridiculous idea of calling it art.