Meat Piece

Artist’s Statement

In Meat Piece, we investigated how women alter their own bodies, treating them as objects to be “prepped” and then consumed. How do we change ourselves for society, and men, and how does this process of change manifest in our self-esteem? Society pressures women to ornament themselves, conforming to gender norms, to be better received by men of power. We grow up wanting to be wanted—and that has become such a normal part of being a woman that we don’t question it as part of our role.

We chose meat to represent the raw and almost gross part of this process of alteration. The meat also has a traditionally masculine presence, showing the power that grooming has and how it has innocuously become such a huge part of living as a woman in our society.

The action of ‘picking’ at our shirts represents the action and change of manipulating ones body and appearance. This action is not done with much emotion, because we wanted to show how subconscious this process of self-alteration is.

The audio we chose is a 50s “good grooming for girls” film. This vocalized the ideals our society has on appearance—in the 50s, and still today.

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