Matthew Belanger
new media artist
Sty
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Dozens of electronic pigs walk about, wag their tails, and "oink," transforming the traditional gallery space around them into a virtual pig pen.
The word Sty, generally suggests a filthy, messy space, where hogs are raised. However, factory farming and genetic engineering have changed the face of pig farming. Today, swine are more often than not confined to cramped indoor stalls. Because they are always indoors, these pigs never develop an adequate immune system. When a hog is inevitably led to slaughter it is not unusual for it to become so excited at the prospect of walking that it immediately dies of a heart attack. This installation questions the practices of intensive piggeries by placing cute battery operated pigs in a free range environment, and asking participants to empathize with them.
Sty was first installed in May 2009 during a worldwide H1N1, or Swine Flu, outbreak at the Storefront Artist Project as part of the group exhibit Another Island.
The word Sty, generally suggests a filthy, messy space, where hogs are raised. However, factory farming and genetic engineering have changed the face of pig farming. Today, swine are more often than not confined to cramped indoor stalls. Because they are always indoors, these pigs never develop an adequate immune system. When a hog is inevitably led to slaughter it is not unusual for it to become so excited at the prospect of walking that it immediately dies of a heart attack. This installation questions the practices of intensive piggeries by placing cute battery operated pigs in a free range environment, and asking participants to empathize with them.
Sty was first installed in May 2009 during a worldwide H1N1, or Swine Flu, outbreak at the Storefront Artist Project as part of the group exhibit Another Island.
This work by Matthew Belanger is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.