HERBIVORES, 2017

As you probably know, a herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material.  In the human species food chain, a herbivore refers to the human capacity of feeding on dollar bills as the main component of our diet and life.

 

The installation Herbivores invites the public to spontaneously participate with a simple action that questions the role of money in our contemporary society. A World War II propaganda poster commands people to take one dollar bill with their mouth out of a pig feeder that contains one hundred bills of one U$S dollar. As animals would do to feed themselves, participants lay down on a red carpet to grab their bill. Though visually abundant, it’s meant to feed one hundred people. In this way, Herbivores confronts us with the dynamics of our contemporary society: in perfect symbiosis with advertising, money “gives us what we need” enslaving us to whatever is needed to get it.