Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to EyeContact. You are invited to respond to reviews and contribute to discussion by registering to participate.

JH

Femme Fatale

AA
View Discussion
Jaimi Haycock, Chicken, 2012, HD video transferred to DVD Jaimi Haycock, Chicken, 2012, HD video transferred to DVD Jaimi Haycock, Chicken, 2012, HD video transferred to DVD Jaimi Haycock, Chicken, 2012, HD video transferred to DVD

In some cultures, like say France, it is considered slightly bad manners to eat out on the street while walking or standing around. It is indecorous, an activity that should be private. So this video (showing 24 hours a day) outside the library plays upon that sense of impropriety.

Auckland

 

Jaimi Haycock

Chicken

Curated by Siobhan Garrett

 

24 January - 6 February 2012

This amusing but vaguely disturbing looped video shows an attractively made up young woman (she wears bright red lipstick) tucking into a large chicken leg - using only her fingers and her teeth. It starts off with poise, dignity and restraint, but gradually becomes more abandoned as she starts to enjoy tearing flesh off the bone and chewing it up. However rather than celebrating being a carnivore, it seems more pointed, perhaps a paean to vegetarianism, with torn and gnawed bird sinews, peeling skin and slabs of fat gradually looking more and more disgusting.

We watch in mesmerised fascination, noting fragments of chicken moving around her teeth and tongue, yellow grease sticking to her incisors, flakes of crisp basted skin curling over her lips, lipstick adhering to the bulbous leg muscle and being smearily transferred to her chin and cheeks. The camera is mostly in front, with the occasional side angle from the right when the woman starts to rip into the shredded pale flesh.

Besides the delights of gustation there is a carnal level going on here as well, about sexual pleasure. The pursed and pouty lips, the small mole above the upper lip, the rhythmic and methodical mastication, the losing of control, its relished frenzy - all indicate this is not just about devouring food. Some men watching it might experience alarm in front of such a chomping vagina dentata, a predatory ‘man-eater’ like perhaps a female spider or praying mantis. Others might find it a turn on - exhilaratingly dangerous - or simply earthy and randy. Plain lustful.

Normally we never stare at somebody eating - especially if we consider ourselves polite - and in some countries, like say France, it is considered slightly bad manners to eat out on the street while walking or standing around. It is indecorous, an activity that should be private. So this video (showing 24 hours a day) outside the central Auckland Public Library plays upon that sense of impropriety. We really peer into her mouth. And sometimes food falls out of it. She enjoys being messy.

These are all interesting issues and Haycock has made a film containing much to be talked about. If you don’t mind feeling a little furtive openly scrutinising it in Lorne St, it’s on for another fortnight.

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email

 

Recent Posts by John Hurrell

JH
Olafur Eliasson, Life is lived along lines, 2009; Installation view: Olafur Eliasson: Your curious journey, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, 2024; Photo: David St George; Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin

Superb Eliasson

AUCKLAND ART GALLERY TOI O TAMAKI

Auckland

 

Olafur Eliasson
Your curious journey

 

7 December 2024 - 23 March 2025

JH
Jenny Holzer, STATEMENT - Truisms +, 2015, a four-sided vertical LED sign: with RGB diodes, stainless steel housing, robotic rotator and hoist, © 2015 Jenny Holzer, ARS. Photo: Collin LaFleche.

Holzer’s Cascading Truisms

AUCKLAND ART GALLERY TOI O TAMAKI

Auckland

 

Jenny Holzer
STATEMENT - Truisms +, 2015

Curated by Natasha Conland

 

27 March 2024 - 9 March 2025

JH
Gretchen Albrecht, Receptum, 1988, gouache and collage on paper, six panels, 2140 x 4700 mm (overall)

Collaging Albrecht

TE URU WAITAKERE CONTEMPORARY GALLERY

Titirangi

 

Gretchen Albrecht
Liquid States


3 November 2024 - 2 February 2025

JH
Ralph Paine, À la Leibnitz, eight framed drawings of watercolour and pencil. Each 230 x 310 mm.

Paine as Fan Boy

CHARLES NINOW

Auckland

 

Ralph Paine
Leaves From a Pillow Book

 

December 5 - December 21, 2024