ART HURTS

  About 10 years before Damien Hirst bought a cow, had a butcher cut it in half and put it in a big fish tank filled with formaldehyde, I had already found a number of individuals to be tattooed, and had purchased, branded and boarded a cow on a farm in California. The correlation between the tattoos and branding was simple. I had considered the gesture of tattooing, and all it's implications of "the mark" and pain. Pulling "bloodprints" from each person, I was confident that the final product firmly placed this within the art context. The mark was permanent and the pain was temporary. Wanting to expand this to an animal, the logical choice seemed to be a cow and the traditional use of a hot branding iron as a device in order to achieve the mark. The human pain of getting a tattoo seemed about the same as a branding for a cow. About a year after branding the cow, it somehow got out on the road and was hit and killed by a pick up truck. The hide was regrettably lost in the shuffle, but the farmer did send me numerous steaks, which I salted and dried, turning them into art objects. 33 years later I still have them.
    In the early 1990's I returned to hunting, after a 20 year absence, once again using art as the pretext for the activity. Now i would be intentionally hunting and killing an animal, in order to either use the carcass as art or exploit the performance aspect of the hunt with intellectualized reasoning. I not only saw this as a completely enjoyable and challenging task, but as part of my job as an artist. Twenty years later it remains one of my major ways of working. Between deer and turkey seasons i spend the better part of 4 months per year in the woods. I can't think of a better way to make art.
    Next weekend i am going to revisit the branding piece, as part of Bikini Car Wash Weekend. Diamond Dave has just purchased a cow, named "Rosie" and agreed to let me brand her. And like most of my work, it is not without controversy. In these days of "slow food", "organic everything" and freshly killed, free range critters, the idea of branding seems to be a little hard for some to swallow. For one, GNJohn (now known as PETAJohn) is all up in arms over the proposed branding.  "Why don't you get a brand." he snaps, bemoaning the fact that the cow has no choice in the matter. I admit this, but what choices DO cows have? DD had purchased 2 cows. One made the choice of escaping. It's been weeks since there has been a sighting of "Burgers Tonight" anywhere in the area. The coyotes probably made a choice to eat it. See what happens when you let a cow make a choice?
   As with all my work, I stand behind it. I never want to see animals (or humans for that matter) suffer. PETAJohn's characterization of the branding as "torture" is a little extreme. Yes, it will hurt....but just for a little while. The hair will be singed, the skin slightly scarred, and the mark will remain. A tattoo or piercing hurts, but you don't see anybody up in arms over those clitoris rings. Lets keep things in perspective here. Don't forget Rosie will eventually end up on your plate.