Artist to turn death row inmate into fish food

A Denmark-based artist is planning to use the body of a Texas murderer as fish food for an installation in Germany after the man is executed. The project aims to spark debate about capital punishment, he told The Local.

Confessed triple-murderer Gene Hathorn has willed his body to artist Marco Evaristti, who plans to freeze dry the corpse and have exhibition visitors feed it to a tank of goldfish.

“This may seem obscene,” Evaristti told The Local of the idea he conceived in April. “But I don't think there is anything wrong with this kind of art piece. If you kill people with the authorization of the state it is a heady matter, and to make fish food with a dead body that is going to rot six feet under anyway is not such a big deal.”

Goldfish have a particular relevance to Evaristti's message against what he calls “state authorized homicide.” In 2000, he made headlines with a controversial installation of 10 functioning blenders containing live goldfish in Denmark.

“The new idea is to turn it around,” Evaristti said. “If you were against killing the fish in the blender, think about what will happen if the fish don't eat. The audience has to participate to be human by giving food to the fish if they are good people, otherwise it will be a big fish cemetery.”

Evarissti has been to visit Hathorn, 47, at his Livingston, Texas prison four times, and says he will attend his execution, which is pending a final appeal. The two have developed a personal relationship and correspond regularly by mail, Evarissti said.

The Chilean artist, who is known for making meatballs out of his own fat and serving them to a dinner party in 2007, hopes to exhibit the new work in Germany because it has the most powerful “avant-garde” influence in the European art community. He said he has had several offers from public institutions, which he prefers to more elite galleries.

“It is important to show the work where the audience is normal, and maybe don't normally go to exhibitions,” he said. “It's important that it's not just the elite, but those who get a political vote on issues like these.”

He also hopes to bring the installation to New York so that a US audience can contemplate capital punishment, he said.

There has been some question as to whether the donation of Hathorn's body for such a purpose is legal, but Evarissti says he believes there won't be a problem after discussing the matter with Texas authorities.

“Normally the inmates donate their bodies to science experiments, and this is kind of an art experiment,” he said.

 

tonite in fargo a young woman and her sister yelled at me after the show,
"jamie stewart, jamie stewart you need to get your shit together!"

my response was, "i am not afraid of you or your sister."

but i am

how do i need to get my shit together?
please let me know. i will try.
willitburn@hotmail.com

 

Sam Cooke just emailed this to me:


a zip file that is 35mb of photos...

 

 

name jamie stewart
age no
location caramel factory

when i was a teen ager i snorted lemon aid. i drink a lot of tea now as an adult. there is no connection.
i have never done hard drugs. my dad killed himself with drugs.
i hate america and money and i am lonely a lot. i want to take a dollar and burn it with a candle that is lit to
father and burn the dollar to ash. then i want to snort half of the ash and then i want to put the other half in vodka and drink it.

thank you for your consideration.

bio

jamie stewart.
first job karate teacher
2nd job taco bell
3rd job bagel store
4th job cookie store
5th job dish washer
6th job book store
7th job special ed. class room aide
8th job preschool teacher
9th job AIDS program intern
10th job DD job placement "coach"
11th job preschool teacher AGAIN!
12th job singer

 

check it out yo!


and this! looks like the photo lab needs to print it better.

 

Slidewshow of the 10,000+ photos marked "Xiu Xiu" on Flickr

 

For the sake of brevity:

baltimore

To reiterate:
I have a recorder at the merch table at every gig on this tour. Please record anything you want (ask David if you don't see it). I am making a text/sound/music piece for each town. I hope to have finished all of them by the end of the tour.

thanks very much for your participation!

 

Scroll down for other pieces below.
this is

cleveland

thanks!

 

thank you ally at the junction in dekalb who deep fried the grapefruit we had, who deep friend the ice cream we ate with the grapefruit, who deep fried the cheese cake we were eating.

thank you.

---

also:

some food we could not eat

marco kane braunschweiler, lukas geronimas, david horvitz, tim ridlen, martine syms

sept 6 - sept 28

opening sept 6, 6pm - 9pm

september gallery
2023 south ruble, 1st floor
chicago