(All images: YuChen Hsu)
Sometimes the softly softly approach doesn’t work. It doesn’t catch your attention enough, it doesn’t make you stop and think. It doesn’t shock you into seeing something a different way.
This design by YuChen Hsu does not take the softly softly approach.
As part of her ‘Extending the Circle of Compassion’ project, she has designed this knife sharpener in the shape of a cow.
Daisy (the cow) has a blade sharpener hidden in her neck. When you go to sharpen your kitchen knife you run it along Daisy’s neck.
YuChen’s work is centered around the animal cruelties that happen when slaughter houses are too busy trying to make as much money as possible and let standards slip. With so many cattle coming through to fill our appetites for burgers, it is “nearly impossible to guarantee each is slaughtered within the regulations”.
It’s a bit gruesome but it certainly makes a statement.
YuChen has several other pieces in her Extending the Circle of Compassion project including a booklet about about factory farming (and not just focusing on animal welfare), an eggcup shaped like a chicken’s mangled foot and a meat tenderiser.
The work is harrowing and quite sad but ultimately thought provoking. Whether it’s the thought of animals suffering or discovering the facts behind factory farming, this work will make you think again about going Easy on the Meat.
