This video was inspired by a desire to make a piece with my friend Nora the Pig. By bonding with a pig for the fist time I found myself searching for common characteristics to identify with the animal. What I came to appreciate was that a pig is unlike any pet animal and lives solely for food without the desire to please the human. I identified with Noras appetite and envied her animal mind and lack of self-awareness.
Nora is a 1-year-old pot-bellied pig owned by animal trainer Amy Bernays. Training a pig to eat a cake is not as easy as would be assumed. Because she lives in a small enclosure with four chickens and two turkeys Nora usually eats out of a dog bowl on the ground and the poultry eat on a table in the middle of the yard.
We had a one-day rehearsal where we set up on Amys porch, washed and dressed the pig. Amy lifted the pigs front legs and placed them on the short table to eat the cake. These three tasks were more difficult than I had anticipated; as a pig is not easily lead around like a dog. We were forced to put Nora into a dog carrier and carry her to the hose and onto the set when it refused to move. The washing and dressing actions were accompanied by extremely loud squealing and on the day of the shoot the pig, while tied to the fence, strangled itself while destroying Amys sprinkler system and had to be cut of its leash. Afterwards Nora was unwilling to move for a long period of time. The pig was again coaxed into its carrier with cake and placed on the set. We hoped it would remember the reward of the cake waiting for it on the table and place its front feet onto it.
After the shoot Nora returned to her barnyard unharmed and with the realization that she could reach the poultry feed if she placed her front feet on a bucket that was placed near the table. This is an action that she had never performed before.
Chocolate cake is used as the emblem of a sinful eating experience and reward for a birthday. Children look forward to birthdays excitedly and adults look with fear the anniversary with anxiety and depression. The birthday party aisle at the drugstore is sponsored by Disney characters of cartoon princesses and Hanna Montana feeding fantasies of beauty, riches and fame. Lonely people crying for help on their birthdays flood depression forums and help lines. Fatty food offers endorphins similar to love and eating disorders are results of a need for this artificial love replacement. The fear in the human mind is this- the result of cake is fat, and the result of birthdays is death.
By momentarily adopting a porcine frame of existence where eating everything was of no consequence and being dirty was comfortable I wanted to indulge in a shared pleasure experience with Nora shamelessly. The soundtrack is based on party music made for children composed and performed by Johnny ODonnell.
Thank you to DP Brad Cluck, Animal rangier and cake decorator Amy Bernays, and Nora the Pig for helping to create this piece.
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OINK 'n' MOO - Happy Birthday!by BarnyardGreetings6,154 views
this video is shit and ugly as hell
sal13987 1 year ago