Abattoir #4

Abattoir #4 is a sculptural and collage-based series that began with the simple act of cutting out images of meat from supermarket sales circulars and collaging them together. What started as an exploration of surface aesthetics quickly evolved into a deeper meditation on the cultural, spiritual, and industrial symbolism surrounding meat and stock animal life in America. The series explores themes of ritualistic animal sacrifice, the commodification of livestock, the iconography of meat as both sustenance and symbol, the anonymous labor that underpins industrial agriculture, and broader questions of collective, faceless labor.

During the development of the series, I discovered the confrontational, socially charged work of Sue Coe, which helped contextualize my practice within a lineage of politically engaged art. I was already deeply influenced by Edward Kienholz’s assemblage-based narratives and the visceral, corporeal expressionism of Francis Bacon—both of whom shaped the emotional and visual language of this body of work.

Some of the more abstract, collage-only pieces—composed entirely of cut-up meat imagery—began to echo Abstract Expressionism in their gestural intensity and tactile surfaces, blurring the line between representation and abstraction. In retrospect, Abattoir #4 appears to anticipate artists like Adriana Varejão, who similarly explore flesh and meat as both medium and metaphor.

The series culminated in a mixed-media installation exhibited at The City Museum in St. Louis.

Selected works include:

• Totem: A cattle skull—bearing the bolt-hole marks of slaughter—painted with the American flag in a style reminiscent of Native American totems. This piece reflects on the elevation of livestock to a mythic status in American culture, while simultaneously interrogating the violence masked by patriotic symbolism. 
• Diptych 1: The first panel features a traditional beef chart layered over a dense collage of meat images cut from grocery flyers. The second panel abstracts the same imagery, centering a miniature side of beef encrusted with meat clippings. Together, the two panels explore the tension between anatomical specificity, abstraction, and commodification. 
• Diptych 2: A found wooden pallet—repurposed to resemble the sliding door of a cattle car—frames a two-part scene: cattle in transit to slaughter, juxtaposed with beef sides on a factory processing line. The piece critiques the mechanized dehumanization of living beings within industrial food systems. 
• On All Fours: A toy pig is confined within a small crate, tightly wrapped in butcher paper with only its ears exposed. The phrase “On All Fours” is typed across the wrapping, evoking submission and domestication. Below it, a row of hog ears (sold commercially as dog chews) are tagged with livestock labels, each bearing the number “4.” A large, weathered numeral “4” anchors the piece, referencing identity erased in mass production. The number also alludes to cultural associations with death, as “four” is considered unlucky in some Asian cultures due to its phonetic resemblance to the word for “death” in Chinese. 
• 3D Meat Collage Assemblages: A series of three-dimensional compositions featuring toy cows and pigs wrapped in imagery of beef and pork, meticulously cut from supermarket circulars. These figures become uncanny effigies—both playful and unsettling—offering a commentary on innocence engulfed by systems of consumption. 
• 2D Meat Collages: A suite of textured, two-dimensional works composed entirely of meat imagery. Through repetition and density, the flesh becomes abstract, forming painterly surfaces that oscillate between beauty and revulsion. These pieces extend the series’ inquiry into commodified life, consumer culture, and the aesthetics of excess.