Artwork > The Meat Paradox

Over the years, with the world population growing nonstop, the demand for meat and dairy products has created an imbalance between us, encouraging unethical practices for consumers and merchants alike. Cows, specifically, are brilliant and emotional animals, yet they are one of the species that humans treat the cruelest, almost as if they have no consciousness at all. There are horrors dairy cows face daily on production farms in America, and we must face reality, especially meat and dairy consumers. I have begun this research by first attempting to highlight the disconnect humans have with their food. I want to encourage the audience to come to terms with looking at a hamburger and seeing the history and suffering behind it; the forcefully inseminated mother, her calf being taken away to be sold as veal, the ‘harmful milking machines’, and the knives taken to the throats of the dairy cows who cannot produce anymore.

Process: screen printing ceramic tiles with delft blue over glaze and refiring them.