art

Aliases: 

“You Are What You Eat”: Stupid Vegetables and the Charm of the New

“You Are What You Eat”: Stupid Vegetables and the Charm of the New

While English satire magazines mocked vegetarianism since the 1840s, the first German caricatures appeared some 30 years later. Early drawings often imagined that a vegetarian would gradually transform into a plant. Other recurring topics are the assumed correlation between (meatless) nutrition and (peaceful, fragile) physical appearance and character, as well as the debate over whether a meat-rich or a meat-free diet was better for human health.

About the Exhibition

About the Exhibition

Caricatures about vegetarians and vegetarianism were not an absolute rarity in the last quarter of the nineteenth century—yet they take time to find in a flood of cartoons on gender relations, certain professions, and political positions. Thanks to the progressive digitization of magazines, it is increasingly possible to search more specifically for caricatures on vegetarianism; however, many papers are still not available online. Therefore, the total number of vegetarian cartoons can hardly be quantified.

„Du bist, was du isst“ – Dummes Gemüse und der Reiz des Neuen und Anderen

„Du bist, was du isst“ – Dummes Gemüse und der Reiz des Neuen und Anderen

While English satire magazines mocked vegetarianism since the 1840s, the first German caricatures appeared some 30 years later. Early drawings often imagined that a vegetarian would gradually transform into a plant. Other recurring topics are the assumed correlation between (meatless) nutrition and (peaceful, fragile) physical appearance and character, as well as the debate over whether a meat-rich or a meat-free diet was better for human health. This is from the German version of “Satirical Glimpses of the Cultural History of Vegetarianism.” For the English-language version of this exhibition, click here.

"Confessing Anthropocene"

Stefan Skrimshire considers the ethical question of how to communicate with future human societies in terms of long-term disposal of radioactive fuel. He proposes that the confessional form (as propagated by Saint Augustine and critiqued by Derrida) may become increasingly pertinent to activists, artists, and faith communities making sense of humanity’s ethical commitments in deep time.