Trough
The work of artist Ruth Burke focuses on the connection between humans and other species, mainly livestock. In her performance "Trough" (2016) she let cows feed from a cone-shaped trough around her neck. From her website: This performance reverses the typical power structures engaged in by humans and cows. Rather than the human consuming from the body of the cow, my bovine collaborator consumes from an appendage on my body. I am on my knees in a blue costume that features a large cone around my most vulnerable corporeal parts, the neck and the head. The dark blue color is a play on cow’s dichromatic vision and the cone is filled with treats. The relationship between birth, death, and consumption is one perpetually unfinished. Looked dangerous to me. I kept expecting one of the cows to chomp off her nose or ears.
The work of artist Ruth Burke focuses on the connection between humans and other species, mainly livestock. In her performance "Trough" (2016) she let cows feed from a cone-shaped trough around her neck. From her website:
Looked dangerous to me. I kept expecting one of the cows to chomp off her nose or ears.
This performance reverses the typical power structures engaged in by humans and cows. Rather than the human consuming from the body of the cow, my bovine collaborator consumes from an appendage on my body. I am on my knees in a blue costume that features a large cone around my most vulnerable corporeal parts, the neck and the head. The dark blue color is a play on cow’s dichromatic vision and the cone is filled with treats. The relationship between birth, death, and consumption is one perpetually unfinished.
Looked dangerous to me. I kept expecting one of the cows to chomp off her nose or ears.
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