Meet Animal Meat - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

Simone Racheli
Asciugacapelli, (Blow-drier) 2007 plastic, papier mache, wax. cm25x26x11h. Courtesy of PaoloMaria Deanesi Gallery © Simone Racheli
Several artists are eminent for the
incorporation of meat in their respective
practices, two of which we will discuss
later on in the interview. Of every other
material that you could have chosen to
imitate, why did you select meat?
Meat represents the sensitive, the animal, man.
The representation of meat creates a similitude as
it brings us together with the represented object. It
is only with the imitation of meat that I have been
able to blur the boundaries between real and
fantastic as meat embodies a sense of reassuring
quotidianity.
I have chose to copy meat because my
objects are anatomical models and therefore
imply the concept of imitation. These objects are
generated as the resultant of the fact that objects
are not the opposite of the ego, but are instead
augmentations of human qualities and abilities.
The imaginary anatomies of which my objects are
made highlight therefore the abstract side of the
relationship between men and objects.
What does it mean for an artist to produce
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objects made of meat, both real and
fake?
I guess that in a sense it means to cover the
object with a level of humanity whilst assuming a
critical approach to society. It means
caricaturizing the everyday and in the case of my
objects this is achieved in the space existing
between the farcical and the dramatic. These
objects function as a metaphor to our sleepy
conscience, drunk by the excessive reality that
brings us to become accustomed to the irrational
and the ethically vacant.
My New York, part of the 2002 Whitney
Biennal, was a performance piece by
multidisciplinary artist Zhang Huan.
Wearing a muscle suit made entirely of
steak, Huan transformed himself into a
piece of meat and walked the streets of
New York. His work spoke of many themes,
ranging from bodily restrictions, to
concerns of self-identity. Despite bearing
the physical stature of a body builder,
Huan has discussed the vulnerability he
felt while wearing the suit. Why do you