Yellow Cow Performance III
2010
2010
Print on Arches Velin Paper, in 8 Parts
Each: 58 x 82 cm
2010
Print on Arches Velin Paper, in 8 Parts
Each: 58 x 82 cm
YELLOW COW PERFORMANCE: The first Yellow Cow performance was conceived to see how people would react. At a farm, a yellow saffron-based dye was used to colour a white cow. It was then set free in the village and the delighted reactions of the villagers observed. This connected to the stirrings of imagination felt by a young child in the mosque.
YELLOW COW BRAND: Believing the Yellow Cow is as relevant now as it has ever been, the story – kept alive in mosques and Qur’anic study groups for 1300 years – was set free into the contemporary world through the power of a brand. A ‘line extension’ of mass-produced Yellow Cow cheese, butter, yoghurt and milk products flooded the market and took on a material presence in people’s homes, workplaces and local shops.
Together, the iterations of the work question the commodification of religion and its presence on a contemporary, consumerist society.
"In biblical and Quranic times a story was spread by word of mouth and recitation; to spread a story… or an ideology… in the contemporary world, one has to conceive a brand that will be recognisable in the marketplace.” Ahmed Mater
