The Other White Meat...

Accumulation: When embarking on my fort-making endeavor I concentrated on the accumulation of advertisements featuring meat that arrive in junk mail. I interested in the provocative portrayal of meat in these images, and how their explicit nature resembles pornography. Although they are intended to appeal to the viewer's appetite, many of the photographs appear repulsive and crude.

I created this print using the prontoplate lithography process. When removed from its original context the meat resembles an organic structure such as a land form. I collected several of these images and made a variety of prints from each.

I mixed colors that are evocative of flesh to illuminate the "meaty" textures. The image above is the prints laid out after I produced several editions. Time to begin fort-making!

I attached all of the prints to a strong paper backing to make it stand and curved the structure to create a barrier. I thought this form was reminiscent of the way snow forts are constructed.

My current studio practice focuses on the correlation between the portrayal of women's bodies and meat in cultural imagery. Women's bodies are consumed and dehumanized visually through sexual access to our bodies, and animals are exploited as objects available for our consumption. I am interested in how these messages are implied through representational strategies that attempt to seduce our senses I intended my fort to become a space that illuminates the territory between desire and repulsion.

Enjoy!

Mbean