A Bird at My Table, 45" x 30," series of ten aluminum metal prints, 2008
In the photographic series A Bird at My Table, I wanted to begin to shed light on the horrific practices that both chickens and turkeys are subjected to from birth until death on their way to the dinner table. Literally consumed more than any other domesticated animal, yet denied protection by any federal laws, these birds suffer both mental and physical abuse from over-breeding and confinement.
In the A Bird at My Table series, I wanted to complicate the rigid boundaries between the human and nonhuman animal by positioning my own body in such a way as to resemble the cooked corpse of a chicken or turkey. My intention was to foster a sense of connection between the human body (which is typically viewed as someone) and that of the nonhuman animal’s body (which is typically viewed as something). How does something that is appetizing become someone who is not?
The ways in which women and animals are compared to one another and objectified in a consumer culture that reduces them both to their bodily parts—“breasts,” “thighs,” and “legs”—was also on my mind when making this series.
In the A Bird at My Table series, I wanted to complicate the rigid boundaries between the human and nonhuman animal by positioning my own body in such a way as to resemble the cooked corpse of a chicken or turkey. My intention was to foster a sense of connection between the human body (which is typically viewed as someone) and that of the nonhuman animal’s body (which is typically viewed as something). How does something that is appetizing become someone who is not?
The ways in which women and animals are compared to one another and objectified in a consumer culture that reduces them both to their bodily parts—“breasts,” “thighs,” and “legs”—was also on my mind when making this series.