Chicken Fracas

Fair Game

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Reports in The Crimson and elsewhere have resulted, I believe, in widespread misunderstanding of the life-affirming philosophy underlying a project recently conducted by my sculpture students. I am writing in the hope that I can clear up some of the misconceptions surrounding this project.

The project used a chicken in an investigation of the process involved in making a statement in sculpture. Students were asked to witness the entire process which delivers a chicken from the poultry farm to the table. By so doing, they put themselves in a situation which made them more aware of their own place in the life cycle.

By focussing on the essential elements of life and earth, these students broke through the buffers erected by our industrial and commercial society. Most of us, for example, have a limited sense of a pre-packaged commodity like a chicken as a living creature. The project questioned why we do not feel guilty while looking at chickens in the supermarket or while eating them.

Students were asked to confront the emotions that arise when dealing with life and death. Through this exercise, I hoped that my students would deepen their own selfawareness and, in doing that, develop a stronger respect for individuals and other creatures.

I believe that my students realized this aim by having to take responsibility for their own part in the entire process invovlved in something as elementary as feeding oneself. It was my wish that the students could then go on to convert the negative aspect of this experience into a positive and productive understanding of the whole. They would then be able to reinforce this positive understanding with a sense of wonder and imagination when creating a statement in sculpture. Ritsuko Taho   Visual and Environmental Studies   Department