Christopher Janssen

BFA Exhibition - Absurd Repentance

This body of work is intended to close a significant chapter in my life, to pay homage while concurrently emphasizing the importance of humor to the human experience. Humor invokes camaraderie, eases tension, and alleviates stress due to the monotony of living and working in modernity. The ability to laugh, to joke with one another, to make light of our situations, sometimes humor is what gets us through the day. I consider this work to be a sort of Absurd Repentance; I am essentially repenting for something considered to be morally just. Butchery and ritual slaughter find themselves in a myriad of religious practice, and among the oldest professions in history. The consumption of meat was imperative to the evolution of humanity, and the work I did ensured communities were nourished over the course of nearly two decades. Any forgiveness I’d seek would not be from a supreme being, but rather from the livestock, the animals that are mere assets, commodities conveniently thought of as biological machines rather than living, breathing creatures. I’m sorry you’re so delicious.