MEATQUARIUM | 2019

Glossy, alluring surfaces encase growths, germs, fungi, decay, malformations and other natural castoffs that typically evoke disgust. This research project looks at how humans attempt to control environmental entropy, whether it be through sanitation, genetic engineering, or new material formulations, and what this means for the future of our environment. Plastics, while credited with many of the medical and technological advancements of the last century, are polluting our ecosystems at alarming rates. Each and every introduction of a new material may cause the eradication of a pre-existing organism, with far-reaching effects in the natural world’s vast network of interdependency. - Baylor Knobloch

Photographs by Matt Cronin, Sandy Carson & Brooke Johnson. Shown at the Visual Arts Center in Oozy Rat In A Sanitary Zoo

A horseshoe crab blood filled IV injects itself into Ms. Turmeric, the weird microscope, who is filling with a chalky horseshoe crab blood and her ear is itchy because it is full of mealworms. A silicone horseshoe crab cast falls out of one of her orifices in the process.

cast pipefish, dehydrated fish, gelatin capsules, shrimp, resin pellets, stinkhorn mushroom, turmeric, cardboard, aqua resin, epoxy clay, LEDs, silicone, resin | 18” x 18” 18”

the pipefish are swimming at the farm and the capsules of shrimp bait them above. Chlorinated pool lights shine through the plastic pellet growths under the gateways. The fish become dehydrated when they swim into the HOT turmeric surface seeping through below. Their bodies are reeled up the side conveyor belts to the shrimp capsules and then their remains grow as stinkhorn mushrooms go into their final production stage of sterilization by drowning in a thick layer of epoxy resin. Then they are packaged in algae based bioplastic and sold as “vegan toona”

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