My work is a response and challenge to the prevailing anthropocentric ideology that upholds human dominion over animals. The idea of human dominion over animals is mythologized in our culture, ordained as our right as humans. These mythologies are told and upheld as part of the larger historical and cultural narratives of our society. The most prevalent overarching myth about animals, is that they are all here for us humans. Our society’s attitudes towards chickens epitomizes this mythology. 

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Chickens are the most abused of the animals raised for food. Most chickens are raised in deplorable conditions on factory farms. Considering how dependent our society is on the chicken, it is remarkable how dismissive we are toward this animal. They are considered and treated as objects without identities, histories, desires, or agency and are portrayed as disposable, faceless, silly, dumb, and cowardly. These categories are constructed to justify the abuse and use of these animals. This mythology establishes the chicken as here for us humans. I work to dismantle this myth in all of its iterations. Myth refers first to a fictional often magical story that creates cultural meaning and secondly to a commonly held belief within a society. I deal with these two notions of myth by creating, anti-myths, magical stories that defy commonly held beliefs about animals. Humanity’s view of animals is largely shaped by depictions of those animals. Changing how animals are depicted will necessarily change attitudes towards them and ultimately the way they are treated. There are legions of unremembered deceased chickens who have been deemed disposable by society. Presenting an animal that is supposed to be disposable as lingering in an afterlife, questions the human-chicken relationship. In portraying these chickens as sentient beings who possess power, self-efficacy, agency, identity, and history, I counter the anthropocentric mythology surrounding the chicken. In my anti-mythology, I created an imaginary history and animal rights organization with both human and animal members driven by the souls of dead chickens. 

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I have been focusing on subverting the human-chicken power dynamic by presenting the idea of the consciousness of chickens. In this mythology, human interaction with the piece elevates the chicken to a level of importance and power and recognizes the sentience of the chicken. I am interested in using the beauty, strangeness, and mystery of my work to entice the viewer to consider the idea of the consciousness of chickens and the often unpalatable subject matter of the mass abuse, slaughter, and consumption of these animals.