BASS, BLING AND ZEBRAS

unicornbusiness:

thewholescrapbook:

Merel Bekking, from “Maarja denk ik dan, die waren toch al dood’ (‘Well, they were already dead anyway’), 2011

‘The series “Well, they were already dead anyway” (in dutch: “Maarja denk ik dan, die waren toch al dood”) began with a fascination for bad habits, the “Things I hate to love”. Those things that are so nice to do, but somehow don’t really feel right. After having conducted a study on these “guilty pleasures” Merel Bekking collected the bad habits of a large group of people and compiled them in a book. But one sentence really stood out. This sentence came from a woman who liked to constantly buy new shoes. However, these shoes are made from leather and leather is made from cows. But she condoned her addiction by literally saying: “Maarja denk ik dan, die waren toch al dood”, which translates into “Well, they were already dead anyway”. An incredibly interesting statement.

This sentence was the basis of the current series. Day-old chicks, residual material from the bio-industry, can be bought frozen for 2 euros 35 per kilo at your local pet store. You buy paint by the litre, fabric by the metre, and apparently chicks by the kilo. In this way, the chicks are not chicks any more but they are turned into material.’