The Chicken and Food series began while I was at the Kohler Arts/Industry residency in 2014. I was preparing for an exhibition about birds and thought, why not cast a raw chicken drumstick?

In this body of work, I strive to examine encounters of intimacy and comfort, and at the same time, reflect on power dynamics that effect the behaviors of both humans and nonhuman animals. With focus on the chicken in this work, I investigate the ethical and epistemological consequences of humans objectifying animals for food, entertainment and decoration. A contradiction that may be characterized by both intimacy and exploitation continues to evolve and alter the attitudes humans exhibit towards animals. We live with animals, we try to communicate with them, we name them, but at the same time, we use and consume them as if they were objects. The ambivalence of this relationship is one that is sometimes difficult to acknowledge as present. What are the cultural and psychological distinctions we make about what and who we can eat and what does it say about the complex coexistence we have with each other?

Since my Kohler Arts/Industry residency, I took the chicken drumstick mold with me to other residencies such as New Harmony Clay Project and Punch Projects and continued exploring the ideas at these residencies, as well as at my own studio. As the work developed, I cast additional prototypes, such as various eggs, raw chicken wings, sculpted chicken heads, and often combined them with additional materials and text. The ability to make multiples and achieve exact detail is a process I am curious about and will continue to investigate for a while.