Fatgun

The project Fatgun is inspired by the tradition of feeding birds in winter by hanging a piece of animal fat. When I was growing up, winters were much colder and longer. I grew up in a farming community where many families raised pigs for food, and I remember my grandparents sharing pig fat with birds every winter. This tradition still exists, although today it is more common to buy ready-made bird feed from the supermarket.
I was struck by the contradiction of feeding birds with the fat of another animal — something they would not normally consume in the wild. While intended as an act of care, the gesture also reflects the complex and often contradictory relationship between humans and the ecosystems they seek to protect.
In northern regions, people have long relied on animal fat — whale blubber, seal fat, and other animal fats — to survive harsh winters, using it to insulate clothing, fuel lamps, and protect their skin from wind and frost. These practices reveal fat as a material with genuine biological and practical significance. Feeding birds with pig fat similarly provides energy during winter, yet it also represents a human intervention that reshapes ecological relationships.
By hanging pig fat outside my window in a metal structure shaped like a shotgun, plated with gold leaf and reinforced with internet cable wires, I reflect on contemporary relationships between care, violence, and nature.
The brooch series Little Fat Guns brings this reflection closer to the body, transforming the larger installation into wearable objects.