A somewhat unsettling image of a hanging pig dangles from the ceiling, with its front halfway open, revealing the mother pig’s farrowing process. Another video clip illustrates Slaughterhouse, wherein the inflatable farm animals reside in a likewise, inflatable countryside. They survive the harsh conditions surrounding them, as in being exploited for the food chain, yet they show endearment towards humans who breed and take care of them. The original exhibition demonstrates artificial insemination, milking, sheep shearing, egg collecting and pig slaughtering, which may give visitors quite a jolt, but also a delicate moment to question today’s unpleasant realities, particularly in animal farm production.

Saeborg, Hanging Pig, Photo: Alma Reyes

The surrounding atmosphere is swarmed with enormous trees and suspended insects against painted walls of a forest scene. Mattresses also spread across the floor that act as the animals’ healing space. Microphones are also set up for visitors to howl like animals do in the dark. Next to them are a diary for visitors to jot down their memories of being trapped in an animal’s body.

Graduate of Joshibi University of Art and Design, Saeborg developed her empathy for animal welfare from making farm animal suits as she was drawn to weak and fragile things. Observing human and animal cruelty, and thus, the imminent need for care and compassion in our natural environment, the artist has used a cyborg to redesign herself with latex material that itself possesses possibilities for change, alteration and body expansion. The tight covering induces body pressure, that in turn, compels Saeborg to free herself and release psychological barriers.

During her stay in Australia, she had witnessed slaughterhouses and animal protection centers where animals were rescued, healed from their wounds, and returned to forests and mountains to live appropriately in their original birth land.

Saeborg has been critically acclaimed internationally, having performed in Australia, Germany, Greece, UK, and elsewhere. The provocative art theme has earned her the Taro Okamoto Contemporary Art Award Toshiko Okamoto Award in 2014 and the Tokyo Contemporary Art Award in 2022-24.

Saeborg stated, “Biologically, I am a woman, though I have always been resistant to having the image of a stereotypical woman imposed on me. I suppose I grew tired of performing while knowing this was not the real me. I think to distance us from the sexualization of the female image… we need to become a nonhuman figure. Perhaps, my work exists to create a new gender and a free form of sexuality.”

30th Anniversary of Kurobe City Museum of Art
Saeborg Enchanted Animals
Date: November 16th, 2024 – January 13th, 2025
Opening Hours: 9:30 – 16:30
Closed on Mondays (except January 13th), December 29th to January 3rd
Place: Kurobe City Museum of Art
Address: 1035 Horikiri, Kurobe, Toyama (inside Kurobe City General Park)
Tel: +81 (0)765 52 5011
https://kurobe-city-art-museum.jp