Sainsbury Chickens

 

 

Berlin 2010

Size chicken: 19x13x11 cm

Size installation: 300 x 200 x 90 cm

Materials: porcelain, clear glaze.

 

Headless and prepackaged we find chickens at supermarket shelves. I am fascinated by the look of this naked, slightly erotic, polysterene wrapped “end product” and wondered if there is a way to reflect the absurdity of this mass-production of living beings.*1

I made a mould of a chicken bought at the supermarket Sainsbury ́s. Then I started a collaboration with the famous “Royal Porcelain Manufactury” (Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur). They are one of the oldest porcellain manufacturers in Europe and produced the tableware for Frederik the Great, at a time when porcelain was as valuable as gold.

With the use of their high quality porcelain I turned an ordinary mass-produced chicken into something highly treasured, reversing the value chain process in food production.

*1The price of a chicken is pushed down through short growing period from 39 to maximum 42 days, high density in poultry farms and price wars between supermarkets.