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

Simone Racheli
Telaio di Bicicletta, (Bicycle Frame) 2006 iron, papier mache, wax. cm116x41x78h. Courtesy of PaoloMaria Deanesi Gallery © Simone Racheli
think he selected raw meat to discuss
vulnerability?
In this performance the artist adds a layer of meat
to his vulnerable body as a protective shield
creating some sort of super-body. However, this
too is one that cannot escape decay reassessing
the inherent fragility of anything made of meat.
Meat is indeed a live matter subject to
corruptibility; degeneration through time. This is
the condition of what “is”. This causes anxiety and
avoids the unavoidable we put on masks and
manipulate our looks. This of course is only a
temporary solution to an irreversible process.
Carolee Schneemann performed Meat
Joy in 1964, shortly after Body Art gained
in popularity in 1960. Male and female
actors covered their bodies in meat
carcasses, raw fish, chicken parts,
sausages and blood, writhing suggestively
and interacting sexually with both human
and animal alike. Taste, smell, touch and
sound were all employed within the piece.
Bearing obvious sexual resonance, the use
45
of meat in Schneemann’s piece is
dramatically different from that of Huan,
as she uses the material to represent
sexuality and eroticism. Establishing itself
as a diverse material to work with, how
does something that was used to
represent vulnerability and fragility
become something used to speak of
sexual empowerment and celebration of
the body?
Meat can embody many different meanings and
every artist seems to exploit a personal
perspective on the overall signification of such
material. However I think that the softness and
moist qualities of meat most readily suggest links
to “the erotic”, but the smell of blood of mutilated
corpses and guts may bring to very different
realms.
During my studies, the majority of my work
sought to investigate and discuss the
relationship of animals and artwork. Last
year, I gave a public lecture, titled “
Animals and Art: Provocative or