Chicken Society – Pk Pk Pkaa, Publication, 2020
Children are quick to make agreements: who goes first, who sits in front etc. There are no contracts, and yet the game is established, no laws and yet order has been arranged. What fascinates me is how these innocent social decisions between children are faintly reminiscent of more political histories and maneuvers. Chicken society then is a looking at the markers of pleasure and abuse, or delight and domination all within the playground as a setting in which to confine the thought. The thought is clearer when it’s confined, but at moments I push it off the playground to see where it lands and what that says about me, and perhaps about you?
It begins with a negotiation, but when it always goes one way and not the other, the negotiation falls into an intolerable dependency – a hopeless fight to be free from our reliance on others. Chicken heads and a contraceptive pill, come to symbolize ways we participate in larger political “plays” as we are mothered by governments and befriended in global relations wanting to share our food. Access to flourishing life becomes a matter of technology (or the lack thereof); the outcome tossed onto the roulette table, ripe for contractual agreements. Questions of justice and fair trade evident in the sweet sharing of a neatly packed lunch box between 4-year olds. Lawful, criminal, regulated or free-market – it seems patterns are reproduced as we develop social bonds. Chicken Societ, then is a critical reflection on some of these matters explored through illustration, painting, and dialogue.
