Meat art: The perfect advertisement for vegetarianism!

Last night, caught in a fit of nostalgia, I re-watched David Cronenberg's Videodrome. Basically the tale of a man's psychotic attachment to his television, the movie features some of the most disturbingly meaty special effects I've ever seen, including a VCR built into a character's abdomen, a gun made out of raw meat, and other grotesqueries that halve the distance between flesh and manufactured items. After the movie was over, I turned off the computer and went to bed, comfortable in the knowledge that the line between meat and machine is pretty clearly drawn and David Cronenberg is more or less insane.

Today, unfortunately, I happened to discover Meat After Meat Joy, a show that is currently on display at Daneyal Mahmood Gallery in New York City. Featuring art that is inspired by and often constructed from meat, the show is designed to "investigate the paradoxical relationship meat has to the body." In the service of this goal, it has exhibits including meat-based sneakers, a cup and saucer constructed from bacon, and a Betty Hirst piece titled "American Flag" that is made from rotting, maggot-ridden animal products.

While encouraging vegetarianism may not be the actual purpose of this exhibit, it is a very likely side-product, as the array of bulging, blood-laden muscle is sure to make many visitors question their eating preferences. With that in mind, it's interesting that PETA has, once again, totally missed the point. Stating that "Unless you're Hannibal Lecter, there's nothing 'artistic' or 'joyful' about meat," the animal-rights organization called upon the director of a gallery to "commit to displaying only exhibits that don't support gratuitous animal suffering."

On one level, PETA is right; then again, referring to a meat-based statue of a baby or a slab of meat dangling from a metal hook as a "support" of animal suffering really seems to miss the point. Ultimately, this art show seems designed to show, in the words of William S. Burroughs, "the frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork."