Mill 

Curator: Sue Coe's mixed-media artwork titled "Mill" presents a disturbing tableau that requires unpacking through visual and contextual lenses. What are your immediate impressions? Editor: Ugh, it feels like a nightmare factory exploded onto canvas. Gruesome, unsettling… that meat grinder dominates everything, spewing… well, it’s pretty graphic. It definitely makes you want to look away, but you also can’t. Is that the point? Curator: It certainly provokes a visceral reaction. Notice the assemblage; the layered collage and painting. This creates a density of meaning, forcing viewers to confront multiple narratives simultaneously. The grinder serves as the focal point. Editor: It's relentless. That handle, cranked by a suited hand, is oddly detached, dehumanized. And all around? There's this menagerie of creatures caught in historical snippets, classical warfare... what's she saying about humanity's legacy here? Curator: Coe's piece deploys historical figuration as a commentary on power. Consider the use of animals amidst these battle scenes and mechanical elements. These visual cues question the moral agency and deterministic logic of systemic cruelty. Editor: Cruelty is definitely the keyword. It's in every corner – the poor skeleton horse in the corner and even that lone, massive foot pinned with a nail beneath the machine is not very subtle, is it? Almost like a Christ figure, suffering under this relentless meat production line. Curator: The religious undertones contribute to its allegorical depth. This symbolism underscores not only historical atrocities, but also contemporary injustices, such as industrialized agriculture. Editor: True. Makes you think about factory farming in ways you wish you didn't. It’s like she’s holding a mirror up to our darkest inclinations. The scale of suffering is both monumental and intimately grotesque. I’ll be turning vegan after this. Curator: Perhaps the intent of Coe's anti-art stance is not simply shock, but a destabilization of comfortable paradigms. The interplay of raw art, social realism, and symbolism in "Mill" functions as a potent catalyst for re-evaluation. Editor: Destabilizing is an understatement. It really does linger in your mind, this piece. Makes me question who’s at the handle, who’s feeding into it, and if there's even a way to switch this monstrous contraption off. Curator: Indeed, "Mill" evokes contemplation on systems of control and accountability. Editor: Thanks to that contemplation, I might not sleep tonight.