MOTHER OF INVENTION: 03
This book is the result of an investigation into 20th Century patent applications, all relating to the optimization of the transport and slaughter of farm animals. With its quaint front cover, the book mimics a child's colouring book. Rather than continuing with this cheerful farm theme for the inside pages, the artwork instead takes a darker turn, consisting of entirely of illustrations from the actual patent applications themsleves. Thus the macabre journey from farm to fork is traced through a sequence of human inventions.
The book highlights the contrast between the cosy imagery used so often in the representation of farm animals with the hidden reality of their lives and deaths. The book graphically examines the relationship between human, animal and machine, a timely provocation.