And it is precisely because of artists like Jacqueline Traide, a student from Oxford Brookes University, who allowed herself to be "restrained, force-fed, and injected with" various cosmetics in a window in plain sight of the many passersby who were aghast at what they saw.
The astounding, 10-hour performance was clearly an effort to raise awareness for the animal cosmetics testing which the performance had paralleled. The stark dehumanization of the student - which, it would seem, culminated in the shaving of part of her head during the process - was surely a shock to many who had witnessed it. Of course, it wasn't shock alone that gave the performance its power.
As they say, "Location, location, location!"
This all took place in a shop window on Lush's Regent Street, one of the UK's busiest shopping avenues. It was very likely that many of those shoppers taken aback by Jacqueline's performance had very recently purchased - or were en route to purchase - the makeup whose origins the performance protested vehemently.
The performance caught my eye for obvious reasons: it was disturbing, enlightening (I had no clue about the process used to test cosmetics on animals before), and also far reaching. Though the performance was only geared toward animal cosmetics testing, it most assuredly raised other questions as well.
For me, the question was this: Why are farm animals not given the same love and respect in American culture as is given to those we keep as pets?
Why are we willing to turn a blind eye - and an unmoved heart - to the horrifying cruelty that delivers us our cheaper meats?
These questions appeared in my mind as I watched Jacqueline Traide submit to what - if done to a human - would undoubtedly be called torture, and I realized that her performance had done her job. It had begun a conversation, even if it was only happening in my own mind, on yet another pitfall of our enabled craving for cheaper products.
Now, I wonder, if we might be moved to do something about it.
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