News Bulletin - Australian Animal Studies Group

Art Work: Projects, research, installations, reviews
Dacia Pierson
Chicken processing from Slaughter series. Photograph.
Artist Statement
48
Over 100 million
cows, pigs, and
sheep are raised and
slaughtered in the
United States alone
each year, and for
poultry, which
includes geese, duck
and chickens, the
figure is staggeringly
higher: 5 billion each
year. Weekly, 102
million chickens are
slaughtered, which is
more than half a
million chickens per
hour.
Slaughter is a documentation of the process by which an animal becomes food. Within the
American food system, this process is largely hidden by the USDA and willfully ignored by
consumers. The project aims to create more transparency in this system.
Growing up on a farm, we grew our own vegetables and raised all our own cows, chickens, and
pigs for food. In late summer, we would preserve all the fresh goods that we could for winter, and
when the ground began to frost, the livestock was killed, processed locally and humanely, and
eaten throughout the rest of the year. Like many Americans, my perception of our food system was
distorted, but for different reasons. With research, I began to understand how distanced the
general population has become from our sources of food and the repercussions that has on our
health, environment and the future of food. Few people know the reality of where our food is
coming from, but this responsibility is not solely the consumer‘s; agribusiness has high stakes in
keeping such knowledge out of public consciousness.
Slaughter is influenced by the elevation of a common scene of Christ-like sacrifice in Rembrandt's
The Slaughtered Ox and Joel Peter-Witkin's complicated images that both repulse and intrigue. I
explore the dichotomy of the grotesque and the beautiful within slaughter, sacrifice, blood and
death.
My agenda is not to judge, not to promote veganism or vegetarianism. Simply, I am interested in
what is hidden, and challenge complacency with information. This is not in protest to individual
farmers, nor in direct opposition to eating meat, but to bring forth information so that we may make
more mindful decisions.
Further information and 28 more works in the series see: http://www.principleoflocality.com