Sarah Hurwitz's New "Meat Market" Offers Dragon's Blood and Pounded Unicorn Liver

PETA protesters in Phoenix have run the gamut of weird anti-animal-cruelty protests, from grilling a girl on a fake barbecue to stripping naked and showering in front of a downtown hotel. Wonder what they'd have to say about local artist Sarah Hurwitz's new "Meat Market" show, which opened this past...

By Wynter Holden

May 26, 2011

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PETA protesters in Phoenix have run the gamut of weird anti-animal-cruelty protests, from grilling a girl on a fake barbecue to stripping naked and showering in front of a downtown hotel. Wonder what they'd have to say about local artist Sarah Hurwitz's new "Meat Market" show, which opened this past weekend at eye lounge in Phoenix?

This ain't your grandpa's butcher shop.

In addition to faux meat shop posters and a giant sculptural rack of ribs, the exhibit includes a full-scale meat counter with plastic wrapped packages of mythical meats such as mermaid fingers, bunyip steaks and baby dragon skin. The back room has been turned into a foil-coated meat locker boasting a giant tentacle and some poor creature's feathered flank.

"I thought for a while about making up creatures of my own, but really liked the idea of something you believed in as a little kid getting slaughtered and demystified as an adult," says Hurwitz.

If you cried when Buckbeak the hippogriff died in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, best "steer" clear of this place. Those with less empathy for imaginary creatures will likely get a kick out of Hurwitz's creativity -- and understand her point that if these wonderful creatures really did exist, we'd probably just eat them anyway.

But at least there's one consolation for our sister arts & culture blog: There's no Jackalope meat in the exhibit. Hurwitz says she's "fresh out. But I've heard it tastes similar to lobster!"

Shop the "Meat Market" through June 11 at eye lounge, 419 East Roosevelt Street.

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