What a Surprise view 1

Nesting boxes covered with correspondence, court proceedings and media coverage documenting the prosecution of a mass cow starvation case.

What a Surprise view 2

What a Surprise view 3

What a Surprise view 4

What a Surprise view 5

What a Surprise view 6

What a Surprise view 7

What a Surprise view 8

What a Surprise view 9

What a Surprise view 10

What a Surprise view 11

What a Surprise view 12

What a Surprise view 13

• + Send a Postcard
• + Add to Collection
• + Share this work

In my conceptual art, I document the mechanisms of denial through the actions of unknowing participants and the machinery of bureaucracies. Real events are transformed into visual art constructions which are then used to influence real events.
In this instance, I spent several years pursuing public records regarding the starvation death of 70 dairy cows in Scott County. I chronicled the case as it progressed through the courts, and corresponded with law enforcement and judges as I attempted to obtain evidentiary photographs and videotape that showed dead and dying cows still chained in their stanchions, unable to reach grain within a few feet of them and so cannibalized each other. The photos were deemed "offensive to common sensibilities" and the Sheriff felt that I and the public needed to be protected from the images not from the perpetrators, who never paid a penny in fines or a minute of jail time. I created a series of constructions covered with the paper trail ("What a Surprise", "What I Learned Was") and later created a beautiful binding of the horrible photographs and used it to lobby for stronger anticruelty law at the state legislature ("The Misdemeanor").

Fine Arts Merit Award, Minnesota State Fair, 1994

Artist

Wings: Ginna
Xenoevil
Wings: Simone
Wings: Avian Influenza and Me
Wings: Candy
Wings: Manjiro
Wings: Spent Hen (for Nellie)
Nemo- Portrait / Self Portrait
Wings: Eden (in collaboration with Heidi Greger)
Wings: Jeremiah
Wings: Days Without End
Wings: Non lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate. View 3.
unasked questions #1
The Loathsome, Repugnant, and Grotesque Misdemeanor
Roseman as a young man
Albert's Circle of Fourths
animal rights, minnesota, cozzetto
River's Edge Dream
Eden flies
measure and pull
Fine Table for Birds
pets or meat
greater than the sum of our parts
Grass Cake
Memory Box
Count Every One
The Committee
What a surprise- exterior
Sticks and Stones: Other Nations Ponder the New World Order
Picnic
River's Edge
work in progess
River's edge detail 1
River's Edge detail 2
Roberta and Sita
Frida and Diego
Regime Change
Virgil Butler
City Chickens, Bing
Hand and Hand- portrait / self-portrait
City Chickens, Gody
Hortus Deliciarum
.000023 Acres of Art; the curse