The featured book this week is one of my favorites in the collection, Christien Meindertsma’s Pig 05049. Published by FLOCKS in 2007, Pig 05049 is a softcover book with a paper dust jacket and a plastic swine ID tag attached to the spine. The tag reads “pig 05049”. Meindertsma followed the journey of this pig over three years.
The journey of pig 05049 started on a farm in the Netherlands. The pig was then slaughtered and processed, with by-products going across the globe. Pig 05049 is an index of all the products that make use of this individual pig. The book is organized into categories: Skin, Bones, Meat, Internal Organs, Blood, Fat, and Miscellaneous – using cleverly tabbed pages. Each product has been photographed by Meindertsma and brief texts, describing how the products use the pig parts, accompany each image. The products range from the obvious (spareribs and sausages) to the obscure (jigsaw puzzles and photographic film). The overall design of the book is beautiful, down to the smallest details (such as Meindertsma’s small illustrations displayed throughout). Along with the photographs, illustrations, and text, Pig 05049 contains a foreword by Lucas Verweij, Dean of Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design, and a brief explanation of the work from Meindertsma.
“Pig hairs make excellent paintbrushes because of their hard-wearing nature” (183)
The documentation of this individual pig’s journey creates a map of our consumption, and more importantly emphasizes the increasing level of detachment and distance between consumer and product. The book shows the effects of globalization by highlighting an individual – dissected Pig 05049. In his forward, Lucas Verweij writes “The book slices through reality in various ways. In a surgical way, a pig is dissected. But the dissection goes further than the proverbial surgeon goes. The book also shows the uses of the pig. It lets us see how mad the globalising world already is”.
“In the production of wine, gelatine can be used as clarifying agent. The gelatine reacts with the tannins and bitter substances and absorbs cloudy elements that can then be separated from the drink.” (35)
Click here to access Pig 05049 through the library catalogue.
Click here to watch Christien Meindertsma’s TED Talk How pigs make the world turn.
Christien Meindertsma often explores the relationship between raw materials, products, and consumption. She has an incredible body of work that’s worth checking out. Click here to access her website.
Also, Meindertsma’s book The Collected Knitwork Of Loes Veenstra just arrived and is currently being catalogued here at the library! Keep an eye on it in the catalogue to find out when it’s available!
-Hannah Dempsey, Artist Book Co-Op Student
604-844-3840
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