Archives: vegetarian art show
ahimsa
Rodin, Van Gogh, Peter Max and others abstained
from eating meat and fish. Here is a vegetarian art show
review. Tom Regan, teacher at NC State, has long
been involved in this.
The VivaVine: Volume #4, No. 4; Sept./Oct., 1995
vivavegie.org
What (pray tell) could be meant by... a "vegetarian," art show ?
Well, if you allowed them, the artists of this cutting edge show most
poetically would have given you answers to your curious queries. And
surely, after you gazed upon the many beautiful pieces of art at The
Sunnen Gallery where the show took place from May 6 to the 25th, and,
after you read the many passionate statements from the artists, you
would have found the logic of it all to be most clear.
>From over nearly 3 dozen applicants who each painstakingly sent
slides, newspaper stories and professional histories, the show was
eventually whittled down to 16 artists who put vegetarian art on
display for hundreds to see at the Lower Manhattan gallery.
Alas, the opening of The Vegetarian Art Show on May 6 brought
vegetarians out of the woodwork. It became a place of many reunions
creating, for just a little while a mini critical mass of gentleness.
Part of the scene was vegetarian and local musical instrument inventor
Leon Gruenbaum bringing the curious sounds of his patented Samchillian
Tip Tip Tip Chee Pee (basically a computer, qwerty keyboard and all)
to the sidewalk outside the show. One was likely to think that this
was an event which was indeed ahead of its time. And it was.
Here are some comments at the opening:
*
"I think it's a new perspective in art, definitely. There's been
many new things with art galleries, but this one takes the cake, the
veggie cake," said John King upon exiting the show.
*
A number of people at the opening agreed that this show marked
the beginning of a new era, and that soon, very soon, vegetarianism
would be commonplace. A good number of people who gave their immediate
comments about the show renewed their commitment to vegetarianism
*
Christine Butler said, "Actually, after seeing parts of the
show, it's put me over the edge and I will probably never eat meat
again."
*
Jeff Mendelsohn said, "I've never seen a theme for an art show
based on vegetarianism. Everyone is looking for an ideal that is
really not here in the real world. It's not in this world, but it's in
that room," he said, pointing through the doorway of the gallery at
the opening.
*
Michael Buttrell, upon exiting from the show at the opening
said, "From my perspective as a vegan and an artist I thought the show
to be re-affirming."
*
The show was a political statement without a doubt, but some of
the art was quite exquisite. Jean Thaler of Big Apple Vegetarians
exclaimed, "I've been very pleasantly surprised. The art is great. It
doesn't just have a message, it's actually very good art."
*
David Albef said he was a little bit less hungry than when he
walked in because he had eaten part of Gabriel Grayson's piece which
was edible!
*
Radical Vegetarianism author Mark Braunstein commented that
there was "not enough meat," at the show. "It's more about
vegetables," he said, "than it is about carnivorism; and I think that
vegetarianism in the context of an art show should really be more
about carnivorism."
Though much of the art came from a pro-vegetable vegetarian point of
view, there was some gore and a reality check here and there on the
animal front if you looked closely.
Pro-vegetable for sure was a piece by Irene Fiedel. It depicted a
luscious still life of tubers and greens. Her artist's statement was
an outpouring of love for growing things wherever they may be. "From a
block away, the produce is reduced to its simplest elements: bold
colors, in varying shapes and sizes. Up close, the inspiration to
express my personal vision in paint is an immediate response. At times
there is a strong desire to whip out a brush and capture the produce
at the market before me."
One of the most beautiful, as well as poignant paintings was the one
by Josh Dorman. His "Before the Twister" was difficult to walk away
from once you stood before it. The colors, the composition, and the
bits of painted burlap exuded the necessary earthiness for the full
experience. But more than this, the piece surely represents an idyllic
image for vegetarians in particular -- with deep political
implications. His glorious image of a farm (or, more accurately, a
large garden) full of various edible plants neatly planted in rows,
belies today's horrible reality of miles and miles of grain crops,
planted this way necessarily to feed animals to be eaten. Further
significance of the painting came from the fact that this depiction of
a farm was plopped in the middle of what appeared to be miles of
hillside. Causing almost no intrusion upon the living things
surrounding it, this farm integrated itself with its environment. This
is a farm which could only be a reality in a vegetarian world.
On the darker side were Werner Brenner's "Slaughtered Pig," a Christ
figure like abstract in bold strokes of orange, green and red, with
little mounds of swirled slathered paint along the vertical abdominal
slash. Warner's statement showed the sympathy that all vegetarians
feel for other living, breathing beings. "Pigs have no opportunity to
consent, because no one ever asks them. The farmer, the slaughterer,
the butcher, the waiter, the cook, the eater all conspire to splatter
every apron with bacon and to fill every fork with pork."
Also very powerful was local painter Linda Dempsy's exhibit. Set
before a mural of bucolic images of cows on an old fashioned farm,
Linda set a picnic table covered with plates upon which were plastic
models of steak and chicken. On a platform nearby was a VCR which
repeatedly played graphic videos of slaughter and meat processing
plants.
Also on the platform were glasses filled up with colored liquids. The
glasses were labeled with the names of deadly chemicals and drugs a
person finds today in commercial meats.
"The videotapes are very depressing," commented Neal Teeman about
Linda's exhibits at the opening. "It's too bad more people can't see
footage like this; they might think twice about sitting down and
having some chicken wings."
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