PIG 05049, a conversation with Stromectol (Ivermectin) Christien Meindertsma

Christien Meindertsma is a designer with an investigative mind. She analyzes, surveys and in her latest project she went as far as dissecting a pig.

A few years ago, as she was graduating from the Design Academy Eindhoven, she bought for a few euros the 3267 items taken from the passengers who embark at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam during one week: spoons, nail clippers, golf tools, bottle openers, pipe wrench, pocket knives, one axe, combs, toy pistols, etc. She photographed and archived the collection in Checked Baggage, a book containing the pictures of all these ‘tools of supposed soldiers of skyjacking and terrorism.’ The book itself was not safe for air travel as it came packaged with one of the ‘prohibited items’.

Next, Meindertsma set her sight on sheep. She used the wool of one sheep to make a sweater, a pair of socks, a scarf and a pair of gloves. She then attached to each garment the identification number of the sheep that donated the wool.

Christien Meindertsma has now filled a warehouse of pig products in the Rotterdam Kunsthal during an exhibition called Kunsthal Kookt (’The Kunsthal cooks’). Most of these products would never grace the display of your local butcher. They are the result of her investigation on what happens to a pig after it has been slaughtered. Part of it ends up BBQ’d but what about the rest?

over three years, the designer tracked the products made from parts or even tiny particles of pigs. her quest led her to a tattoo artist, dentist, granger and weapon specialist. she discovered that the overlay, bones, provender, organs, blood, fleshy, brains, hoofs, hair and reverse of the pig are used in no fewer than 187 products: shampoo, medicine, munitions, cardiac valves, matches, desserts and bubblegum, beer and lemonade, jalopy paint and brake discs, pills, bread, etc.

After slaughter, bits and pieces of the Dutch pig travel around the world. Gelatin from its skin ends up in liquorices and gums, and even cheesecake and tiramisu. In the weapon industry the gelatin is used as conductor for bullets. Pork fat is one of the ingredients of, amongst others, anti-wrinkle cream and shampoo, information that producers are not too keen on admitting. The glue made from pig bones makes matches sturdier and porcelain is manufactured from its ashes. Protein from pig’s hair contributes to making bread soft. Every part of a pig is either eaten or processed. Should anything be left over, it is converted into green electric power. She documented her findings in the book PIG 05049 (amazon UK and USA).

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If you understand a bit of dutch, here’s a video interview of the designer. If not, i’m afraid you’ll have to read the one we did via email:

study of christien meindertsma, courtesy of the interior decorator

What is behind the title of your latest work, PIG 05049?

PIG 05049 is a book that shows 185 endproducts that are made of a single pig. They are catagorized under the comprar viagra chapters Skin, Bones, Muscles, Blood, Internal intestines, Fat and Other.

You have filled a warehouse with pig-derived products in the Rotterdam Kunsthal for an exhibition which runs until September 28. How does