PIG 05049: Mapping A Pig’s Life
More news about art and animals! PIG 05049 is a project by Rotterdam-based artist Christien Meindertsma. She has spent three years on mapping one single pig, with the purpose of not to find out what it means to actually be a pig, but rather to show a pig’s real societal relevance. Actually, a pig in this consumer-based society comes to life after death. It travels the world and reïncarnates in lipstick or Ibuprofen.
“Christien Meindertsma has spent three years researching all the products made from a single pig. Amongst some of the more unexpected results were: Ammunition, medicine, photo paper, heart valves, brakes, chewing gum, porcelain, cosmetics, cigarettes, conditioner and even bio diesel. (…) Meindertsma makes the subject more approachable by reducing everything to the scale of one animal. After it’s death, Pig number 05049 was shipped in parts throughout the world. Some products remain close to their original form and function while others diverge dramatically. In an almost surgical way a pig is dissected in the pages of the book – resulting in a startling photo book where all the products are shown at their true scale (1:1).”
This project belongs definitely to a new generation of environmental activism, in which worries about this planet are shared and being made attractive in a complete new form. Whereas traditional environmental groups are still fighting a whale war while floating around in rubber boats in the ice cold Arctic seas, the new generation maps the processes that we’re all part of. Conclusion: the leading opinion has changed. Don’t fight the producer, but chase yourself. We’re all part of the same system, and we all pick the cherry’s of welfare. While our environmental issues start to get bigger, the methods to fight it become smoother, but above all more pretty.
