Kindred
2014
Single-channel video with audio
7 minute 35 second seamless loop

Kindred is a visual response to Carol B. Adams’ The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, which links meat consumption with patriarchal systems of oppression. Female-bodied animals across species are subjected to parallel forms of violence, through ongoing cycles of objectification, fragmentation, and consumption; rendered “being-less” through technology and cultural representation. Kindred presents a reversal of this process, using liminal and meditative audiovisual elements to generate a ritualistic cycle of being. On the surface, the resting nude situated within a womb-like aesthetic seduces the viewer, specifically, the male gaze. Yet, the form’s severed angularity shares a disturbing resemblance to animal bodies on the butcher’s block. The gaze is further interrupted by another, nonhuman “nude,” whose presence raises questions about anthropocentric frameworks of reproductive oppression.