Beasts of Burden (original) (raw)

Qui Parle, 2011

Abstract

For twenty-two years I have been concerned with the exploitation of animals. For twenty-eight (my whole life), I have been disabled. For the past few years I have been painting images of animals in factory farms. The following essay was born from this visual artistic practice.1 My paintings not only led me to research; they forced me to see and focus on animal oppression for hours every day in a way I never had before. Through this focus I became increasingly aware of the interconnections between the oppression of animals and the oppression of disabled people. This connection did not lie, as many people suggested, in my being confi ned to my disabled body, like an animal in a cage. Far from this, the connection I found centered on an oppressive value system that declares some bodies normal, some bodies broken, and some bodies food.

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