Blood, Fat, Bone

Blood leather

In most slaughterhouses, blood is drained into the sewers and waterways, or re-used as a colourant for meat. Inspired by the construction and deconstruction of living subjects in the food industry, Shahar Livne developed a new handmade “bio-leather” by using fat and bones driven materials from the waste streams of slaughterhouses in the Netherlands and utilising the wasted blood as a colourant and a plasticiser.

The “Meat Factory” project is a series of material experiments with the aim to create dissonance between attractiveness and disgust, natural and industrial attitudes while focusing on the blood as a material and a colourant. The results of the project are visualised in two directions:

1. The use of blood as an ink produces an exciting natural colour range in a silkscreen technique. This repetitive technique references the ancient pigment oxblood, alongside the industrial revolution relating to food and materials.
2. The bioleather is made only from the meat industry-driven waste and low-value materials as a suggestion to create new valuable replacements for a polluting and often cruel industry. Shahar investigated the construction and deconstruction of living subjects and the wasteful and cynical treatment of animals and natural resources by human beings, inspired by the philosophy of “Nose to Tail” attitude of using the entire animal.

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