When given the brief of unorthodox I didn’t really know where I would take the project, although I had a few very basic ideas in mind, I thought perhaps Photoshopping the Victorian photographs I have and giving them accents of modern day, for example clothing. But I though that was a very simple and quick project, I also considered doing something on politics, for example something about Donald trump however I don’t feel that I have enough political knowledge to be able to do anything of much value. My final idea was ‘the return of meat dog’. Meat dog was a week long project I was given during the foundation diploma course I did before my current course. It was a simple collage of meat formed into the shape of a beagle dog. This was to emphasise the fact that people will happily eat cow, chicken etc. but would be disgusted about eating a dog. So inspired by the piece Tluhn Datsi by Jimmie Durham I decided I wanted to bring meat dog to life in the form of sculpture. I wanted to use real fur in the making of ‘meat dog’ as that is something else that meat eaters will be grossed out about but would happily own a pair of leather shoes without thinking.
To begin my project, I decided to go to my social media and see what people’s views are on A, eating dog meat and B, opinions on real fur. This brought me back lots of mixed opinions most feeling that even though they eat meat themselves they wouldn’t personally eat dog and most saying how disgusting the fur industry is. I also read up on articles about eating dog and what I got from that was that people who eat meat are hypocritical for eating one but not the other, however it is fine to be against it for the fact that quite often it is people’s family pets being stolen and eaten during the Chinese dog festival, obviously that aspect of it is wrong, but would be the same if you were to steal someone’s pet pig and to kill that as apposed to an animal bread to be eaten. I also researched about fur throughout the ages what I found fascinating was the fact at one point it was seen as a quality of femininity, glamour and of luxury but in more recent times it has been protested against and fur farming became illegal.
Once I had done some research I set out to get some fur, I managed to get two bags of scraps of mixed furs on eBay for £20ish. While I waited for the fur to arrive I decided I would figure out how I would make the dogs body. It was suggested to me that I make a mix of animals such as cows mixed with that of a dog. Like the work by Bruce Nauman and however I liked the piece I didn’t feel that it was right for my piece and could end up just looking a mess. As it would be hard enough to make a semi realistic dog never mind other animals too. So I decided I would just make a dog carcass hung up like an animal in the slaughter house.
To make the piece I first looked into dog skeletons to get used to the shapes that they are underneath everything, I attempted to make a mini version of the dog out of wire and newspaper, however I found it hard to get a dog shape as I didn’t have a certain breed to go off of. This was when I decided to look into dog breeds to choose the right one for me, I looked at border collies, jack russels, Dobermans, bull terriers and beagles but ultimately I chose a Labrador as they are one of the most common family pets and are the most basic dog ‘shape’ I then looked into a lot of pictures of Labradors and pictures of animals in slaughter houses to try and see what a dog would look like in that position. Once I had a basic understanding of it I started to make the basic shapes from chicken wire, I then stuffed the shapes with newspaper and started to mod rock the entire thing. Once I had the mod rock complete I covered the whole thing in a couple pairs of tights to give a very basic ‘skin’ covering to it all. I then sliced down from the crotch to the neck and mod rocked the inside of that and painted it so it looked like the insides of an animal. This was when I then started on the head of the dog, I used a piece of cream rabbit fur that I had gotten and made the face of the dog including its ears, I then got some teddy bear eyes and a plastic dog nose to add to the head, I think this helped make it seem a little more realistic than anything I would have been able to make. I also made a fur tail for the dog. I then got some latex and mixed it with some paints to colour it red. I painted the whole rest of the body with the latex mixture to give make it look like the dog had been skinned leaving the muscle and blood to show. This really helped make the piece have the gory uncomfortable effect I wanted to piece to have.
For my second piece I wanted to make a cat’s head on a trophy mount like the ones you can get of lions and tigers etc. I made this piece using newspaper to make the basic form as I wasn’t too keen on the chicken wire for the dog piece, and this piece was only small so I didn’t really need to use it. Using the basic shape from newspaper I mod rocked the entirety of it and moulded the shape a bit better, I added layers until it felt strong enough, once it had dried I added some tights over the top of it as it had helped the fur stick to the dog’s head so I thought it would be better than trying to glue it straight onto the mod rock, I added the fur to the entire head then added some plastic cat eyes and a plastic nose. I also made some whiskers out of fishing wire to make the head look more so like a cat. For the trophy mount I looed for a shape of one online and printed it out and drew it onto board this was a little small so I enlarged it by hand by 1.5cm I got both pieces cut out so it would have more detail than a flat piece of wood, once the edges were sanded and both pieces glued together I then painted it a dark, reddish brown colour to make it more like an actual trophy mount. I attached the head to the mount with two screws into the back of it.
For my third and final piece I hadn’t really put much thought in it during the project so I was left thinking about what I could make. It was during a conversation with some friends that one of my friends Nicole suggested to me that I could buy a steak and put a dog’s collar on it. I really liked this idea however I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of buying an actual steak as I am vegetarian, so I decided I would make one out of newspaper and mod rock, I looked up shapes of steak and made a basic shape from newspaper, much like the cat I mod rocked this until it was strong enough and shaped enough. Once dry I painted it a reddish colour for the main part and a pinkish colour for the outer edges and details. I then bought a dog collar from a shop and hung it around its ‘neck’. I really like this piece and feels it ties in well with the other two pieces.
Overall I am very pleased with the outcome of my project and feel it has my desired effect on the viewer. If I were to change anything I did during this project, I feel that I would have perhaps tried to acquire some different wire from the chicken wire as it was very hard to work with and ended up making the mod rock quite lumpy in places that I couldn’t really smooth over. Other than this fact I wouldn’t change anything about the rest of the pieces. And as per usual I need to work on my studio practice as a lot of the making was rushed in two weeks when I could have had longer had I worked harder during the rest of the project, this is something I really need to work on within myself, to gain enough confidence to just get on with making rather than always being approved before doing anything,
Maeve Dawson Art 