Dana Chambers - 2024

Artist's Statement

This piece is titled “Heartland to Landfill” and is based on waste produced by the meat and specifically beef industry. The concepts of “nose to tail” eating and the waste that comes from not participating in that practice are at the forefront of the piece along with ineffective methods often used to feed cattle. This piece was created using a photo of my mother holding a beef heart she claimed from a cow we had purchased and butchered from my grandfather's farm surrounded/ buried in soil from the oldest land used for crop growth on that same farm with teeth from both the cow whose heart is seen and another cow we purchased months later as well as fake grass (real grass would not last as long as I hope to preserve this piece) pushed into that soil. The heart photo is in reference to the wasted organs of butchered cattle which are (in major feedlots) typically thrown out. This heart is buried to highlight the fact that the organs are discarded, however the hand holding the heart is still slightly visible to bring attention to the fact that there are people in the world that want and in some cases need these pieces of the animal. The soil with the cows teeth and synthetic grass relates to inefficient use of land in the context of raising cattle and the fact that in the U.S.’s cattle feedlots the animals are fed diets consisting of primarily grain that is difficult for them to digest along with being given hormones and antibiotics to keep them alive and growing at rapid rates. The grass is related to the fact that grass is the best possible food source for cattle and the fact that it is likely the closest these animals' mouths will be to the grass is when they are laying it decomposing.

To conclude I want to stress that the discussion surrounding animal waste and inefficient feeding/ husbandry practices should focus on major industrialized farms rather than small local farms. Local farms obviously still produce waste but the fact is that they are nowhere near the root of the issue. Additionally the practice of “nose to tail” eating is something that my family has only recently begun to adopt in a somewhat limited fashion. The majority of my family, including myself, is quite picky and as someone who gets squeamish around nearly every kind of raw meat I often do not opt for an offal based meal. However, regardless of my avoidance of this meat, it is used and enjoyed by my family (as long as we don’t know) and many other families around the country and the world at large. The fact is that the concept of “nose to tail” eating as well as downsizing the scale of industrialized farming is in my opinion the only way to respectfully and somewhat sustainably preserve the culture and traditions surrounding beef around the world and in our own backyard.