Black Angus Breech Project: Gallery and Concept

Updated March 25, 2008

Background
Evolutionary psychology hypothesizes that many human behaviors and reactions have a physiological basis. According to this theory, our behavior and feelings can be categorized into 'modules' that give us each tendencies to behave and feel -more or less- in specific ways in different situations. There are hosts of such behavioral nodes that comprise the human psyche and a few, for the sake of example, are aggression, altruism, tribalism, competitiveness, empathy, parental investment in offspring, curiosity, and so on. The Black Angus Breech is a project that explores the conflict that can be generated when two such modules compete.

Conflicting Impulses
Black Angus is a breed of cattle which was bred for the singular purpose of beef production. They would not exist without human beef consumption.  Humanity's carnivorous habit is one of the modules at issue in this project. The other issue is altruism. Human beings have a wonderful capacity to care for those unrelated to us, even individuals outside our species.  We have a particular feeling of nurturing when it comes to the young of almost any species. By showing a young (full-term fetal) calf with a certain fate (to be eaten) in imminent peril, I hope to demonstrate how these near-universal impulses (meat eating and nurturing) can be put into conflict within our minds and hearts.

The Point
The lesson, if there is to be one in this work, is that when we have such a conflict among behaviors we can, perhaps, work to identify and resolve the conflict using our better judgment. We can also accept that the source of the conflict, these behavioral nodes, is a part of our make up and in doing so we are responsible for their impact on our behavior. I love animals, and I love a good hamburger... This piece is about that apparent conflict and how each time I eat meat, I hope the animals had been treated kindly and with respect while living.

Below, you can see pictures of the work as it is being created. The gallery may take a minute to load.