Slag Mag: Milk

SLAG MAG

Vol. 3, Issue 3

A publication of the Old furnace artist residency

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Featured Artists William Cravis williamcravis.com Corrine Diop facebook.com/corinne.diop.studio Carmina Eliason carminaeliason.com/cafeconleche Heather Ess ess.heather@gmail.com Maria Lux marialux.net Danielle O’Brien danielleobrienart.com Heather Rios hrrios.tumblr.com

SLAG MAG, Vol. 3, Issue 3 Š 2017 Published by Jon Henry Edited and designed by Elizabeth Ygartua A production of the Old Furnace Artist Residency The Old Furnace Artist Residency is an ongoing artist project curated by Jon Henry. The residency is located in Harrisonburg, Virginia. It is open to all forms of artistry: sculpture, painting, video, sound, conceptual, poetry, fiction writers, critical theorists, etc. Special attention is given to practices which are focused on social justice and being socially engaged. Emerging artists are especially encouraged to apply. O.F.A.R. is accepting residents through 2017. Visit oldfurnace.tumblr.com for more information and to apply.

INTRODUCTION While procrastinating writing this into via a “Mad Max” marathon, I witnessed the powerful, moving scene of Max cleaning the blood off his face with milk. In the movie, milk is a versatile resource in post-apocalyptic Australia, serving as engine coolant, a cleansing liquid for virgins, and currency. [as they are cooling off the rig’s engine they see a massive explosion up ahead, then out of the dust cloud they see Max returns with blood on his face, along with guns, ammo, a steering wheel and a shoe which he throws to Nux] Toast the Knowing: Are you hurt?

Max Rockatansky: Huh? Toast the Knowing: You’re bleeding.

Imperator Furiosa: That’s not his blood. [referring to the bucket by the rig] Max Rockatansky: What is this?

The Dag: It’s mother’s milk.

[Max starts washing his face with the milk, they then drive through the night]

This issue of SLAG also dips into “Food Politics” through a visual, performative, and poetic exploration of MILK. While we might not grasp its totality, we do discover its relationship to race, gender, sexuality, and purity. These contours are especially relevant to my own artistic and farm-based work. I recently completed a performance piece called White Guilt in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where I had milk poured over me by passersby. You can see a still on the back of this issue and view media coverage from WHSV-TV at tinyurl.com/milkHburg.

I hope, like this movie did for me, that some of the thought-provoking examinations of milk in this issue cause you to pause a moment when you pull the carton out of the fridge.

— JON HENRY, artist and creator of SLAG MAG & O.F.A.R.

Corinne Diop Iris in Milk with Spots , Iris in milk , Iris and Milk in Glass Bowl  2017, Pigment prints on hot press paper, 22 x 30 inches

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Heather Ess Milk

milk has estrogen like no one got weaned.

I was breastfed until age 6 only regularly until about 3 just for comfort splinter, cardboard cut, or something. at age 7 my nipples looked like my cat’s I lifted my shirt so a kitten could nurse from me Her head moved closer and my shirt flew back down to my belly button footsteps tumbling down the stairs I didn’t want to answer any questions

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Carmina Eliason

Café con Leche: Conversations on Skin Color in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia Café con Leche Project invites people to mix

claimed there is no racism in their countries.

coffee with milk to match their skin color and to

Not wanting to discount their experiences, but

use this activity as instigation for conversation.

also wanting to challenge their assumptions,

During my stay at the Old Furnace Artist

I asked them about who owns property and

Residency (OFAR) in January 2017, I hosted

who has money in their countries. Without

three sessions, all which were complex and rich

skipping a beat they answered, los gringos—the

experiences. What follows are highlights from

white people. I found the dichotomy thought

conversations at Shenandoah Valley Juvenile

provoking and hope to learn more about racism

Detention Center  , OFAR , and Eastern

in Latin America.

Mennonite University .

In juxtaposition to the Detention Center, I The majority of the youth at Shenandoah Valley

hosted Café con Leche in OFAR’s cozy kitchen

Juvenile Detention Center come from Mexico

with two local Shenandoah Valley artists. We

and Central America and are being detained

had an intimate conversation over hot coffee

because they were found without immigration

and fresh donuts from a local Mennonite-owned

papers and without parents or guardians. To

bakery. I learned about Mennonite and farming

comply with the Center’s rules we used decaf

communities in the area and found it surprising

coffee with lukewarm water, Styrofoam cups,

that it is common for people to ask about your

and a yellow plastic kids play teapot. Materials

parents and grandparents to determine your

passed out needed to be counted before and

place in the community. This is a strong contrast

after the kids used them. Even though it was a

to my experience in the California Bay Area

strained situation, I was able to speak with about

where people may ask about my ethnic heritage

20 kids who seemed curious about me and

or where I went to school, but do not ask who

my project. I was caught off-guard when they

my parents are.

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On my last day in Harrisonburg, I brought Café con Leche Project to Deanna Durham’s Applied Social Science class at Eastern Mennonite University. Students shared stories and experiences in small groups. At the end one student wrote, “its projects like this that keep racism alive.” This is significant for two reasons: 1) It reflects a contrasting opinion to the classroom conversation that day (exactly the reason why I invite participants to also leave comments anonymously) and 2) I disagree.

Conversations on skin color are hard because of

“Though it is far from

a comfortable and tidy experience, remaining

engaged, curious,

critical, and reflective

gives us tools to help

in deactivating systems of white supremacy.”

the amount of shame and confusion involved, but avoiding them entirely means losing out on opportunities to understand the stories of others and ourselves and perpetuates a culture of denial and shame. Though it is far from a comfortable and tidy experience, remaining engaged, curious, critical, and reflective gives us tools to help in deactivating systems of white supremacy.

carminaeliason.com/cafeconleche facebook.com/cafeconlecheproject

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Maria Lux Inspected for Wholesomenes, 2011 Duraflex plastic ear tag  Sponge print on paper  Modified milk carton  Dimensions variable Excerpts from “Unwholesome” Read the full essay at: https://marialux.net/ unwholesome

“Though I am not, nor have I ever been, a cattle farmer, I find myself in possession of an orange plastic ear tag, the kind

used to identify cows. It looks like what would result if the DOT made name-tags for Christmas presents. It appeared one day

masking-taped to the glass door of my studio, an unexplained artifact left for me by puzzling forces. Actually, I had a pretty

good guess as to who would affix such an object to my door,

and I was right. Because my artwork often deals with animals,

the sight of an orange cattle tag made her think of me, thus the

tag made its way from a ditch in Madison, Wisconsin, where she found it, to the middle of Illinois—from a field to an art studio, from a cow to me. .....

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad-cow disease: an incurable, fatal disease that causes

spongy degeneration in the brain. It is caused by the practice of feeding cows, who are herbivores, the remains of other cows.

It is a process of connecting the food chain back on itself, making a loop, forming a hole.

When these cows enter the human food chain, the disease changes its name, becoming known as new variant

Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. It still fatal, still incurable, still fills

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the brain with holes.

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William Cravis Milk Fountain #2 2014 Mixed media, 3 x 4 x 4 feet

Created in the months following heart valve replacement surgery, Milk Fountain is both an oblique reference to my leaky heart valves, and a rumination on bovine growth hormones (rBGH) that are administered to milk cows to maximize output. Watch it here: youtube.com/ watch?v=P0hFrrho6S4

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Heather rios Your Milk is Poison and Your Mother’s Milk is Poison 2013, Oil on wood, 12” x 12 inches

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Dannielle O’Brien Creamscicle  2017 Mixed media 24 x 12 x 14 inches Soft Serve  2017 Mixed media 18 x 18 x 6 inches

oldfurnace.tumblr.com

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