Work in the Dunedin School of Art's annual ''Site'' exhibition asks some searching questions, Bruce Munro writes.
If no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition, everyone will be completely flabbergasted by The Spanish Inquichicken.
Tara James' astonishing, confronting, beautifully detailed sculptural work will undoubtedly be a major drawcard at this weekend's opening of the ''Site 2014'' exhibition.
James (42) is a postgraduate student at the Otago Polytechnic Dunedin School of Art.
She is also a recent convert to vegetarianism.
The latter will afford her some protection from the darkly humorous offspring of her imagination, seven cassocked egg-farm escapees intent on converting humans to veganism by whatever means necessary.
''The idea ... came to me after watching Monty Python skits,'' James says.
''I imagined a band of male chicks escaping their fate.
''Jumping from the conveyor belt leading to the giant blender that would grind them alive, they would grow up to become The Spanish Inquichicken.''
The work is an exploration of what James sees as the disconnect between Christian principles and the treatment of animals.
''I see an obvious disparity between these principles and the sanctioned ... mistreatment of billions of animals in factory farms, laboratories and for human entertainment.''
The roosters' heads and feet were modelled in clay before being cast in fibreglass using a silicone mould. The bodies were made of expanding foam coated in papier-mache pulp.
The eye-level zealots march purposefully towards the viewer on a raised, V-shaped plinth, their religious vestments adorned with a medallion featuring the ''veganarchy'' symbol.
A related but separate work is Mother. Made of fibreglass, found objects and textiles, Mother is a life-size human female icon with a cow's head.
The intention was to create a work which would present an animal as beautiful, important and unique, James said.
Both works are a visual representation of respect for non-human beings and an invitation to talk about animal treatment, she says.
''I make no apologies to those who find it blasphemous, sacrilegious or disrespectful as the works' iconoclastic nature is intended to challenge a disassociated and unchallenged status quo, with the hope that provoking thought will activate change.''
''Site 2014'' co-ordinator Rachel Allan says the exhibition features hundreds of works by more than 60 students completing graduate and postgraduate studies. The works are across a wide range of media, such as painting, electronic art, ceramics and jewellery.
''For the artists, it is the culmination of three or four years' hard work,'' Ms Allan says.
Free to the public, the annual ''Site'' exhibition attracts thousands of visitors.
The works are available for purchase.
Postgraduate art school student Jessie-Lee Robertson stands inside her installation titled “Like . . . Follow me and I will follow you to the moon and back”.
The work is a tent-like structure decorated with 576 pop icon images which were hand-drawn and then screen-printed by hand on to 24 hospital sheets.
The work is a comment on the internet as a safe house for people who prefer one-way relationships with entertainment industry figures they follow through social media.
''It's a place for weirdos to hang out in...They feel safe because they don't judge and it's all one-way,'' she says.
Representing the online world as a tent was inspired by Robertson's own childhood fort-making and her ongoing use of sheets above her bed to create a sense of continuous refuge despite frequent changes of address.
''I've lived in about 15 places in the past six years ... The sheets create a small sanctuary where I can go with my MacBook and iPhone and be undisturbed.''
