Pork 8 

Curator: Let’s turn our attention to Sue Coe’s piece, “Pork 8,” a rather stark graphic work. It is striking. What do you see in it? Editor: A condemnation. A visual polemic, heavy with shadows. The stark contrast immediately creates a mood of unease, a moral outcry even before engaging with the specifics. There’s a raw intensity, a disturbing quality. Curator: It embodies the characteristics of social realism, bringing together personal expression and societal observation in this collection of narrative images, all rendered in monochrome prints. Let’s consider Coe’s specific choices—the use of densely packed imagery for example. How does that stylistic strategy contribute to the artwork's overall message? Editor: The density is critical; it reflects the overproduction and overconsumption at the heart of the issue. Visually, the composition feels claustrophobic, mimicking, I think, the confined conditions of factory farms and, metaphorically, the trapped state of consumers in this system. There's an abundance that actually feels like deprivation. Curator: Exactly. Looking at the figures themselves—the people and the animals—the distorted forms evoke Expressionism. She's clearly interested in conveying something deeper than objective representation. Coe leverages emotional affect to emphasize the exploitative aspects of animal agriculture, creating this intense narrative-art piece that's a forceful visual statement. Editor: I see an institutional critique too. Text weaves its way across each image, implicating not only individual actions but larger systemic problems. This use of combined text and image echoes historical precedents, maybe German Expressionist prints by Käthe Kollwitz, yet feels immediate due to Coe's focus on current ecological damage and our dependence on pharmaceuticals due to consuming meat. Curator: Her use of line is also vital. The harsh, angular lines contribute to the feeling of anxiety and moral outrage, while their monochromatic presentation simplifies and distills a highly complex reality, urging viewers towards active critical assessment. Editor: And in doing so, she holds a mirror to our culture, doesn't she? Not just reflecting, but distorting, challenging us to examine our role in these industrial practices. The effect isn’t to soothe or entertain, but to activate change by unsettling visual relationships and the very format through which ideas reach their audience. Curator: True, by pushing the aesthetic and compositional conventions of prints and drawings, Sue Coe challenges the viewer to engage in this complex intersection of ethics, aesthetics, and activism. Editor: I agree, Coe masterfully wields the intrinsic elements of her medium, forcing audiences to question the established, often overlooked or misrepresented, ecological landscape surrounding them.