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 Vallarta Living | Art Talk | August 2006 
Artist's Dead Pig Exhibit Sparks PETA Criticism
 Jennifer Quinn - Associated Press
| | People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals criticized an exhibition where artist Kira O'Reilly sits naked for hours with a dead pig. |
A naked performance artist who says she experienced fantasies of "interspecies metamorphoses" while working with dead pigs has angered British animal rights activists.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals criticized an exhibition where artist Kira O'Reilly sits naked for hours with a dead pig, planned for Friday evening at the Newlyn Art Gallery in Penzance, southwest England.
"As Miss O'Reilly seems to have to depend on the shock value of using a murdered pig as a prop, perhaps lacking the talent to make it as a proper artist, may we suggest she take up a day job instead to pay the bills?" PETA said Friday in a statement. "Cruelty is not entertainment."
The exhibition is called "Inthewrongplaceness" and is described on the Tract Live Art Web site as a "slow crushing dance with a pig for one person at a time." About two dozen people have booked to see the exhibition - people watch the performance alone, for a maximum of 10 minutes - gallery director James Green said.
There had been no complaints from the public, and it has been performed before without problems, he said.
"Clearly, the piece is controversial in many respects; in part it is intentionally so," Green said.
On the Tract Live Art Web site, O'Reilly is quoted as saying that when she first started working with a dead pig she began making "fiercely tender and ferocious identifications with the pig."
"The work left me with an undercurrent of pigginess, unexpected fantasies of mergence and interspecies metamorphoses began to flicker into my consciousness," she said.
Naked Performance with Dead Pig Branded "Sick"
Reuters
Animal rights activists have described as "sick" a live art performance involving a naked woman cradling a dead pig for four hours.
Kira O'Reilly's show, called "Inthewrongplaceness" will be performed at the Newlyn Art Gallery in Penzance, southwest England, later on Friday.
James Green, the gallery's director, defended the show, saying that the audience would be controlled, with one person at a time watching the performance for up to 10 minutes each.
"In terms of the gallery's view, we feel very strongly that we should provide audiences in the region with opportunities to see the kind of works that they have to go to London to experience," he told Reuters.
He added that the gallery "had not received a single direct complaint" about the planned show, one of several live performances making up the Tract live art program.
But a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) called the performance "sick."
"As Miss O'Reilly seems to depend on the shock of using a murdered pig as a prop, perhaps lacking the talent to make it as a proper artist, may we suggest she take up a day job instead to pay the bills," she said. "Cruelty is not entertainment."
On the gallery's Web site (www.newlynartgallery.co.uk), O'Reilly calls the performance "a slow crushing dance with a pig for one person at a time."
"The work left me with an undercurrent of pigginess, unexpected fantasies of mergence and interspecies metamorphoses began to flicker into my consciousness." |
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