The Interurban Bridge made a nice conceptual space for the footage. Not only do we frequently see people fishing in the river as well as off the sides of the bridges, but it is also a hot time for fishing in the area (due to the salmon run.) Also during the clip where the viewer watches the large overbearing mouth of the fisherman eating, it feels as though it could be an animal eating (due to the fact only the mouth and mustache are primarily visible). This made people uncomfortable when they realized it was a man, particularly because we do not watch each other eat. The bridge is near quite a few prestigious buildings. It occurred to us that the video was visible to people involved in a range of activities including looking down from their expensive dinners only to see a fish being caught, gutted, and eaten.
http://www.vimeo.com/6857346
For the viewers on the bridge, the footage came off in a few different ways. Some viewers were overjoyed at the process of fishing, either telling me of their own fishing stories, or simply shouting out exclamations about the fish on the screen. Another portion of the viewers were a bit startled and repulsed by the images of these fish being gutted and then eaten. I found this response interesting, because many of those people probably ate fish and meat, and didn’t typically connect the gutting and butchering of the animal with the food that they consume. We discussed how the expectation is strong in public space for large images to be positive and celebratory. The question that arose was how these images worked in that context. Images of fish being gutted at this scale was violent in some strange ways. I am not quite sure the answer for this, but I feel that it did make quite an impression!
The opening reception for ArtPrize this past Friday was awfully exciting. Not only did we have numerous onlookers meandering across the Interurban Bridge; it was the first time my footage of fishing was shown publicly. The context of the bridge was exciting and worked well with the footage. The fish were projected on the screen, and were much larger than life. The footage showed the various aspects of fishing. These aspects included waves on the water, the fish swimming, and jumping out of the water, the fish’s gills rhythmically moving when captured, and then the fish being gutted and devoured by the fisherman. This collection of clips was looped and played repeatedly over the course of the night.
I had originally decided to study fishing for a number of reasons, the main one pertaining to my relationship with my father. My father and I have had a good amount of tension between us throughout the years pertaining to meat. I am a strong believer in animal rights as well as a vegetarian, whereas my father is an avid hunter and fisherman, believing that animals were put here for human consumption. This project was not only to be seen as a criticism of fishing, but to also be seen as a way for my father and I to meet on level ground, and agree to disagree. This collection of footage is helping my father and I deal with our differences, and in that way it is important.
-Jessica
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