Panopticism
 

"In the beginning, there was the Word. Silence emerged afterward... In the past, people who sacrificed animals did not perceive them as mere animals. Even the Middle Ages, which we now view with disgust for formally condemning and punishing animals, are closer to them than we are. In the Middle Ages, accusing animals meant honoring them. Nowadays, we treat them as if they were nothing, without placing them on an equal footing with humans, and attempt to establish 'humane' relationships with them based on this mindset! We no longer sacrifice or punish them, and we take pride in that. However, the reason for this is that we have domesticated them. What's even worse is that we turn them into beings belonging to a world where we find them suitable for being slaughtered as livestock, eradicated as meat, and killed as experimental animals, rather than based on a sense of justice specific to humans, social benevolence and compassion."

-Baudrillard (Simulacra and Simulation)

 

The command given by humans, which instructs nature to stand still, and the innocence reflected in the gazes of the animals echoing in my ears were nothing but reflections. What I witnessed was the presentation of mammalian animals, born and raised in irresponsibly operated barns, to the whims of another mammalian species, humans; it was like a reflection of the behavior of the consumerist society within the humans themselves.

*Exhibited at the Istanbul Photobook Festival