Eternal Salivation: Michael’s Meat Art

Michael Arcega’s installations reflect his interest in visual and linguistic interaction, conflict and play. For One Way or Another, he produced Eternal Salivation, a wooden ark containing strips of jerky made from various animal meats. The relationship between “salivation” and “salvation” is key to understanding Arcega’s ironic commentary on human, animal, and cultural preservation in both historical and contemporary terms.

As in his earlier work, El Conquistadork, Arcega’s motivation for these boat installations stem from his interest in the introduction of Christianity in the Philipines through Spanish colonists in the 16 th century. His ark in Eternal Salivation references the popular story of Noah’s Ark and playfully questions the fate of the Ark’s menagerie and their destinies as objects of “salvation” or “salivation”.

Excerpt from artist’s statement

[The story of Noah’s Ark] “…provides justification for the Christians’ and other Bible-based religions’ assumed right of domination. Speaking to Noah and his kin, God says:

‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.’ (from the new international version of the Old Testament)

This quote functions much like Manifest Destiny did for the United States as a doctrine that served as a driving force to go from “sea to shining sea” and conquer everything in between regardless of who or what existed there before.

In the era of global warming, devastating hurricanes, and tsunamis, the icon of Noah’s Ark has a more current and complicated symbolism. We are confronted by disasters all over the globe with seemingly inadequate rescue efforts. As in the FEMA/Katrina tragedy, the poor and infirmed are left to their own demise. These questions arise: Who is worthy of saving and who is left to drown? Who will inherit the earth? Who decides?”

source: www.asiasociety.org

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