The Milking Stool (2017)
Ceramic, wood, plumbing fixtureMost mammals stop being able to digest milk during adolescence. Over time many humans overcame this genetic trait and made an industry from the mammary glands of other animals. It takes an intense process of objectification, mechanization, and sterilization for most people to be comfortable with such an intimate connection to another animal, such as a cow. The Milking Stool evokes a bodily empathy with dairy cows to better understand the relationship between humans, animals, and machines that pervades today’s agriculture and our daily consumption of food.