John Gerrard
b. 1974, Ireland
Grow Finish Unit (near Elkhart, Kansas), 2008, is an intricately detailed virtual representation of a large pig production facility in the Great Southern Plains region of the United States. A viewer-controlled camera permits oversight by the work’s audience. Circling the scene at their command, it surveys vast lakes of excrement sparkling in the sun, while squat computer-controlled silos relentlessly pump nitrogen-derived corn feed. The ‘finish’ in the title is represented by a six-to-eight month orbit of exchange in the work – a fleet of trucks will arrive at a designated but unscripted point to silently remove and replace the occupants. As in life, a blazing sun relentlessly circles in a twelve-month orbit of its own.
(Text: e v+ a – matters catalogue, 2010)
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