Simone Schwartz-Lombard

CHID 390: Bad Art

Proffessor Simpson

19 March 2019

Bad Art and Good Activism: An Artist’s Statement

This project titled: Meet Your Burger, combines activism with contemplative

exercise. The purpose of this piece is to educate folks about the content of an average

hamburger, and to encourage further investigation into what (or who) we put into our

bodies. In a 2017 survey, Oklahoma State University agricultural economists uncover

that, “[o]nly 10% of Americans [know] that a single patty will likely come from more

than 100 different animals,” when in fact, “[i]t is not uncommon for a single ground beef

patty to contain the meat of over 1,000 different animals (Newport).” I believe this

installment to be a conversation starter with the accompanying digital slogan

#KnowYourFood acting as a platform to sustain that conversation. Khan-Ibarra of the

Huffington Post writes, “[b]y organizing, creating and supporting hashtag campaigns,

people from all over the world can get involved in important conversations.” In addition,

Khan-Ibarra points out that social media offers a platform accessible to people who may

not be able to leave the home.

One of the most successful animal rights campaigns in recent years has been

Anonymous for the Voiceless’ “Cube of Truth” in which activists gather (usually in a

busy, centralized area) in a square formation with masks, signs, and laptops showing

graphic images of animal slaughter. Their purpose is to attract new activists and to have

people commit to veganism on the spot. While this movement is shocking and inspiring,
this and other animal rights movements are subject to criticism for their propogation of

graphic slaughter scenes. In response to these gatherings, author and vegan Tobias

Leenaert writes that while he can see many positive aspects to this type of activism,

“[s]eeing very graphic images may trigger or traumatize some people. Keep in

mind that people have not given their consent and have not been warned about

what they are going to see. They just approach the screens, not knowing what to

expect, and may suddenly find themselves staring – with their small children – at

blood and gore.”

Understanding this concern, I aim for a nongraphic representation of the size, scale, and

inhumanity present in our current system of factory farming. Beyond issues with meat

production alone; I want to inspire not only a desire but also a demand for a more

transparent relationship with food.

The process of drawing one hundred cows posits me into an almost meditative yet

somber state. The time, energy and precicsion required to create this piece is at such odds

with the ease in which a burger is eaten. As an on-and-off vegetarian, this project

recommitted me to the cause. Now the next time I am tempted with a bite of a burger, I

will see the faces of the twenty-five cows in the single bite I would take.

The medium of this piece is pencil on multimedia paper. Had this been

assignment been submitted physically, I would have used a canvas instead of printer

paper as a backshoot. The interjection of digital text within an organic statement is

remnicent of Anonymous’ collective work. The contrast of handdrawn cows with

computer typephase creates a dichotomy between fact Since there is a range to the

amount of animals put into one patty, pictured as the burger in the middle of the row of
cows, I want to indicate that the cows contiously line up to symbolize that we do not even

really have a clear number as to how many are in the particular burger you are eating.

Even as someone outside of the discipline of food safety, this seems like a contamination

risk alone to me. Not only is there a message behind the hashtag, but there’s also an

invitation to take part in this consciousness shift. In an ideal world, people would share

the #KnowYourFood with their own contemplative work associated with the fight against

animal cruelty. From featuring vegetables grown in their own garden to sharing poetry

inspired by homemade sourdough bread, I can imagine how this hashtag offering a

critical lens to daily food consumtion practices. Beyond utilizing this excersize at the

individual level, work in symbolism around injustices can help spread the message and

directly contributes to change. Olesen writes,

“[t]he core argument animating theorization and analysis in the book is that global

injustice symbols are related to global social movements in a dialectical manner:

global injustice symbols are the outcomes if global social movement activity and

they offer ideational resources that can be employed in movement action. If we

accept this dual argument, it becomes evident how global social movements do

not simply respond to political events and situation but how they also create them

through process of meaning attribution and interpretation (pp. 156).”

This dialectical relationship between political action and political symbols is a powerful

tool in which to create and sustain change at the global scale. The stakes of this cause are

huge as, “[t]he U.S. meat and poultry industry accounts for over $1 trillion in total

economic output or 5.6% of gross domestic product according to a new economic impact

study by the North American Meat Institute (Shearer).”

 The scale of this operation encompasses crises of environmental sustainability,

immigration rights (for workers in the meat packing industry), disease (caused by

antibiotic resistance), and so much more. The facts are there, but efficacy among citizens

is lacking in this movement. While one piece of art and a short essay cannot dismantle

factory farming alone, it does reflect a can-do attitude (I mean look at how many cows

there are) towards grassroots movements. Anonymous for the Voiceless’ demand for

veganism on the spot is born out of a belief that ‘everyone can be vegan’. I could not

agree more with this sentiment; life is full of constant adaptation and growth and I do not

see why switching food habits would be any different. I see a future where America leads

in lab-grown proteins. As the Earth adapts to us, we must adapt to it.

 Use xacto knife to recut printer paper

Cut away dead space next to cows

Color match line icon with highlight of text

Change word cow to cattle

Fix description

Take notes from caroline

Works Cited

Khan-Ibarra, Sabina. “The Case For Social Media and Hashtag Activism.” The Huffington

Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 Jan. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/sabina-

khanibarra/the-case-for-social-media_b_6149974.html.

Leenaert, Tobias. “Thoughts on the ‘Cube of Truth’ and Anonymous for the Voiceless.” The

Vegan Strategist, 17 July 2018, veganstrategist.org/2018/07/16/thoughts-on-the-cube-of-

truth-and-anonymous-for-the-voiceless/.

Newport, Alan. “How Many Cattle in a Ground-Beef Patty?” Farm Progress, Beef Producer,

8 Dec. 2018, www.farmprogress.com/beef-quality/how-many-cattle-ground-beef-patty.

Olesen, T. Global Injustice Symbols and Social Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Shearer, P. Scott. “Meat Industry Supports U.S. Economy by over $1 Trillion.” National

Hog Farmer, 20 June 2016, www.nationalhogfarmer.com/animal-well-being/meat-

industry-supports-us-economy-over-1-trillion.