What’s for Dinner?
MEDIUM:
Fabric covered archival board-assemblage: collage, handmade book covers, with toy car wheels.
ARTWORK:
16″ x 30½” x 2″
FRAME:
Natural oak finished wood.
17¼” x 31¾” x 3¾”
RESERVED FOR DONATION OR AUCTION
DAILY CATCHDRAFT
WHAT’S FOR DINNER?
We have with impunity taken from our oceans bountiful amounts and types of fish. We have succeeded doing this with the use of spears, nets, rods & reels, harpoons, etc. We have employed rafts, dugouts, rowing boats, sailing ships, steam and fossil fueled powered factory ships, etc. Over the centuries we have taken our daily catches with the belief fish were plentiful and we had reign over taking all the oceans could provide.
This practice is well portrayed in Peter Bruegel’s 1556 drawing and subsequent engraving title implies “… big fish eat the small.” 1. William Shakespeare’s 1608 play of Pericles refrains how “… the great ones eat up the little ones” inferring allegorically how whales can consume mouthfuls at a time.
The cumulative consequence of these actions today leaves our oceans with chemical & trash pollutants, increasing acidification, the scarcity and extinction of species, ruined or compromised fishing grounds, a warming ocean, acoustic interference, etc.
The assemblage artwork “Daily Catch” illustrates 19th century sailing vessels heading home after successful catches of fish. The relative sizes of the four fishes emerging out of the sea reflects over time the increasing scarcity of fish in our oceans. The wheels reflect the industrial scale of fish being brought to market for our daily needs, what’s for dinner!
Image: From a drawing by P. Bruegel “Big Fish Eat Little Fish,” & engraved by P. Heyden, 1557.
Sources:
1. Klein, Arthur. “The Graphic World of Peter Bruegal the Elder,” Dover Press, N.Y. 1963. Bruegal’s ( c. 1525-1569) drawing of big fish eat little fish in 1556 was engraved by Pieter van der Heyden and published by Hieronymos Cock in 1557. The print was falsely attributed to the late and more prominent artist, Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1450-1516. The bottom inscription reads: “Look son, I have long known that the big fish eat the small.” Public domain image from the Metropolitain Museum of Art, New York, New York.
2. Fagan, Brian. “Fishing: How the Sea Feed Civilizations” Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2017.
3. Flannery, Tim. “Gone Fishing,” New York Review, September 28, 2017 NY, NY. Book Reviews: Fagan, Brian, Fishing: How the Sea Feed Civilizations, 2017. & Molyneaux, Paul. “The Doryman’s Reflection: A Fisherman’s Life, Seashore, 2005. N.Y.N.Y., Thunder’s Mouth Press & Avalon Publishing 2005.
4. Pauly, Daniel. “Vanish Fish: Shifting Baselines and the Future of Global Fisheries,” Grey Stone Books, Vancouver, B.C. Canada, 2019.
5. William, Shakespeare. “Percicles, Prince of Tyre,” The Complete Works of Shakespeare (1564-1616), Cambridge Edition Text, Edited by William Wright, & Illustrated by Rockwell Kent, Doubleday & Company, N.Y. 1936. Percicles, Prince of Tyre was written by William Shakespeare (three acts) in collaboration with a George Wilkins (two acts) and published during 1606-1608.
Notes:
Top: The fish emerging from the assemblage a “Daily Catch” is a Fluke or summer flatfish with adults weighing up to 20 pounds. www.difference.guru/difference-between-a-fluke-and-a-flounder.