Disassembly of the Pig: Cover Reveal!
Disassembly of the Pig, by Neal Auch (scheduled for release April 9, 2024)
Our relationship with the pig is complex.
On the one hand, pigs and humans are uncomfortably alike. Both species are intelligent, omnivorous, and remarkably adaptable. The porcine anatomy is similar enough to our own that pigs are frequently used as human models in medical research and, indeed, pig heart valves have even been successfully transplanted into humans. At the same time, the flesh of the pig in a food staple in many cultures, despite the animal’s reputation for uncleanliness and strict prohibitions against pork consumption in several of the world’s major religions. My upcoming book, Disassembly of the Pig, is an exploration of the human/hog relationship. Using both still life imagery and prose, this work seeks to lay bare not only the grotesquery and beauty of the porcine anatomy but, also, the equally complex and contradictory emotional core of our ongoing relationship with the pig.
The book is scheduled for release April 9, 2024.
“Neal Auch confronts us with an unsettling idea: there is beauty in horror. The photographs in his meticulous anatomical study of the pig, with their deep shadows and rich contrast, evoke Caravaggio’s breathtaking tenebrism. Auch lays bare what goes into a slice of bacon: violence, overcrowding, death, power, lack of conscience. In its contemplative beauty, this is art with the power to mobilize.”
In some ways, the images in this book will be a departure from my usual artistic voice. While the “disassembly sequence” which forms the backbone of the project is still firmly rooted in still life, the complex staged arrangements I usually favour will be replaced, here, by much more stripped down narrowly-focused imagery. Here I am drawing considerable inspiration from Francisco Goya, especially his Still Life of a Lamb's Head and Flanks, with it’s moody lighting and grimly matter-of-fact representation of the contents of the dinner plate. The gallery above gives a small taste of what’s in the book; the fully sequence consists of 92 images, which have been carefully organized so that the work presents a kind of narrative arc. This sequence is accompanied, also, by a carefully researched essay , 11 abstract close-up compositions, and a Foreword by Matthew Stokoe, the author of the legendary cult classic Cows.
This work was always conceived as being the art book equivalent of a novella: short and weird and narrowly focused. As such, my goal is to keep the price point as accessible as possible. This is also, in many ways, a warm-up exercise for my big hardcover coffee table book, which I've tentatively scheduled for a Halloween release.
Stay tuned, you beautiful weirdos. I'll have lots more to say about this going forward...
“The whimsical subject of children’s songs and stories, often the main course at meal time, and perceived as an impure creature by ancient belief structures; Neal Auch presents the pig in a curious fashion through his matter-of-fact photographic approach. Auch’s impressively detailed photographs present this equally beloved and disdained animal in a beautiful and unsettling way, much akin to the way in which it is perceived in our collective imagination. Auch simultaneously puts on raw display the bleak colour palette and complex anatomical intricacies of a once-living creature, reminding us of the beauty and fragility of life.”