Ep: 012 - Joseph Grazi - Animal Liberation and Revulsion

Art Grind Podcast

In the past, the taxidermic animals, bones, and other natural materials employed in much of Joseph Grazi's art work have put him at odds with various animal rights activists, casting him in the role of a sort of curmudgeon of this corner of the art world. Verily, the artist would claim, his often controversial selection of materials might draw out negative reactions in some; however, it is precisely this moral panic that Joseph Grazi seems to want to beget in his audience -- demanding the answers to questions such as: What is it that we value about human and animal life? Why the uproar about poaching, but not about human trafficking in the same parts of the world? How do we place the living, the dead, and the animal, in our collectively constructed mental landscape? This installment of Art Grind has Joseph expounding on his upbringing in South Brooklyn, his intellectual clashes with animal rights essentialists, and the precise location of the absolute best pizza in all of New York (and therefore the world).

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