Open daily from 10am to 4pm
18-29 October 2017
105 Abbott Rd, North Curl Curl
My reaction to Abundance is that it is a difficult to reach the equilibrium of being satisfied with enough. From my observation, having stuff seems to make us want to have more stuff. And food is like that too. We can go into a large supermarket any time of day, from early morning until late at night to buy more - to calm the panic of having run out or thrown out something we suddenly can't cope without. How many people regularly throw away meat, vegetables or fruit because they didn't use it within the recommended time? I don't think that means that food doesn't last long enough before decay begins. I think it's more about the fact that it is easy and convenient to get more. Even the way foods are presented in neat little rows of plastic covered packages - portioned and processed to look clean and clinical. This makes it easy to see the food packages as an endless and easily replaceable supply. Easily replaceable at any time. At the supermarket end that is true. Easily replaceable is reality. But at what cost? What is the rest of that picture. How many animals are slaughtered to make sure that there is so much to buy all of the time. How are they treated? What are they fed? How long do they live? What about the people who work on the farms and in the slaughterhouses? How are they affected by their jobs? How are they changed by what they see and do every day?
I don't want to eat animal products any more. I don't want to buy a little plastic-covered piece of a cow, a sheep, a chicken or a pig. It is easy not to think of the animal that the portion came from. Marketing has made sure of that. But it was a living animal. An animal in an unfair battle for survival. Humans have all the advantages and the animals don't stand a chance. They can't escape, defend themselves, or protect their young. And they lived terrible lives and died violently and way too early after living in a habitat far removed from natural for them.
I have made steel figurative sculptures that represent animals that we consume, most of which are farmed in commercial processes that take away the individuality of the animals. Cruelty might not be the intention on factory farms. But it is reality. We can be abundant without consuming animal species or their products. It is a choice.
These animals are on display in the Northern Beaches Creative Space as part of a group exhibition called Abundance. Open 10am - 4pm daily until 29 October.