Pig 05049
Pig parts make the world turn round
Christien Meindertsma has produced a compelling art work that reminds us that pig bodies are exploited for more than just pork. PIG 05049 explores the ways porcine afterlives deeply and pervasively shape material worlds of contemporary society, and the manner in which industrial capitalism extracts value from animal bodies. The book chronicles how one individual pig - Pig 05049 - contributed to a vast range of consumer products
Pages from the book PIG 05049 can be found on Meindertsma's website.
Meindertsma also gives a TED talk on her book
Finally, on a related topic: for an interesting example of how essential pig body parts are to economic and political transactions, enough so that they demand fraught government interventions, checkout this Wikipedia link to Operation Pig Bristle.
