I promise that my food blog will not turn into an animal blog. However this story I just came across about live pigs which have been tattooed with Louis Vuitton logos as art so sickens me that I just had to bring it to the attention of sympathetic eyes and ears.
So, the Laist.com pointed me to the Shanghaiist.com, reporting about these pigs to be on exhibition at the Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair. Shanghaidaily.com says:
“The tattooed pigs, two of them with Louis Vuitton logos, will form part of an exhibit titled “Art Farm” by 43-year-old Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye. Delvoye had tattooed the designs on the animals when they were piglets and tracked the “canvases” as they grew.
The stage is now set for these unique exhibits in Shanghai. A large pigsty will be set up at the fountain square of Shanghai Exhibition Center, where the eight pigs will be put up for display.
Delvoye brought the pigs from Europe and has kept them in a farm near Beijing. They were displayed at a Beijing art show, triggering widespread concern and controversy. The live pigs will not be sold now since they are “artistic works,” but their skin could be auctioned at a high price after the pigs’ death.”
Eastday.com is reporting that the show has been canceled. I’m sure this atrocity exhibit will soon find itself another home though, and more morons will go stand in line and pay money to go see it. What is it about people that brings them enjoyment from watching animals either deliberately hurt like these pigs, or humiliated and pushed to extremes as in circuses, any “sport” involving animals (horse and dog racing, rodeos, etc…), or jerks like the other “artist” in Spain who put a stray starving dog on display as art. It turned out later to be hoax, but only to the extent that the dog had supposedly been fed and cared for during the exhibit, but no less messed up in that once the show was over, the poor dog was simply discarded back out onto the streets where they had nabbed him from in the first place. Or Banksy and the elephant in the room. When did it become fun to make animals suffer? Or at best, bore them to death?
It’s all so gross. Our species has such a bizarre and disturbing obsession with subjugating animals for fun and profit. It goes so much farther than the food issue. I can understand why it’s so difficult for people as a whole to not grasp or accept the concept of vegetarianism. That’s one thing… but hurting, mutilating and forcing animals to do ridiculous things while people stand around and watch (or gamble)… I just don’t understand. I don’t want to ever understand.
Thank you for listening. Rant over, more food soon.
AUUUUGHHHHH! This makes me sick sick sick!
This just makes me want to cry. What we do to these poor creatures. I am glad you posted this because every time I read something like this makes me a stronger ethical vegetarian.
not only is that cruel to the pigs, it’s absolutely fucking stupid. seriously, why is that art? i totally agree with you on humans being sick and twisted. animals shouldn’t even be domesticated, let alone caged up and put on display. disgusting.
i remember seeing all the depressed lions in glass cages in the casino at the mgm last time i went to vegas. i seriously will never stay there again.
nice rant. it had to be done. people are scum.
That’s absolutely disgusting,
My jaw dropped when I saw this.
Just horrible.
This vicious “art exhibit” is disgusting on so many levels.
Hurting animals is not artistic! Laaaame.
WOW. that’s fucked up. pardon my french, but seriously.
Thanks for leaving your comments everyone, I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one deeply disturbed by this.
Thanks for posting this, I had no idea this crazy stuff went on. How horrible! You are totally correct though it is right on par with the ridiculousness that is the circus and our strange obsession with that type of entertainment.
This is undoubtedly atrocious. I wonder though how it measures up to being in a factory farm. Both fates I would not wish on anyone.
Tracy: I bet these tattooed pigs have had pretty comfy lives compared to the animals in factory farms. These have probably been treated well their whole lives, kept well-fed and healthy in preparation of their big debut as art objects… whereas the pigs in the factories are simply in a living hell from the day they are born until the day they are slaughtered. Sad but true, I’d rather be the tattooed pampered pig then the one destined to be someones breakfast ham.
Tracy is right. If you think this is bad, look at what is done to pigs raised for food:
http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_pigs.asp
MaryF: That’s kind of the whole point of why I’ve been sharing these things in the first place. Hopefully more people who still consume animals will see things like this and stop and think about the suffering their actions cause. I think people are somewhat blind to these issues when it’s presented to them as being about food, they just don’t want to hear it or think about it. But when they see it in another context like this, not as food but as frivolous and meaningless cruelty, some of what’s really going on might just slip through the fog and cause someone to think.
I read that the “artist” that did this to these pigs is a vegetarian. Isn’t that strange?
[...] live and eat in L.A. Vegan love all the way… Nice discussion in the comments section. Original ‘Sylvie’ artwork by Wim [...]
I feel completely ill.
The artist, a virtual unknown, made a pretty good move, because of the following:
1. He’s actually a vegetarian, and has a better chance of converting somebody to vegetarian than than 10,000 PETA billboards with naked supermodels.
2. People witnessing something cruel will probably make them stop and think if that’s right or wrong, I think more people will think that this piece of work is a little sick.
3. Does it matter if this guy get’s 1,000,000 bad reviews or 1,000,000 good reviews as it’s 1,000,000 reviews.
This guy knew exactly what he was doing but I think he should be in advertising than an artist.