Wednesday, September 27, 2000

Pig Parade: Pig Appeal

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A swine in fancy robes is still a swine

By Owen Findsen
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        This is 151st in a series spotlighting pigs from the Big Pig Gig Public Art Project taking place in Cincinnati, Covington and Newport. Find past pig profiles at cincinnati.com.

        This pig is the attorney for all of the pigs. If his appeal is heard, the pigs will be set free.

        Artist: Josiane Trageser, 61, Wyoming, an independent artist who is “suddenly getting a lot of religious art commissions. I'm not sure why this is happening, but thank God!”

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        Sponsor: The Law Firm of Wood & Lamping, LLP.

        This pig's pen: Sixth and Vine streets.

        You were inspired by: I wanted it to be the jazziest lawyer pig that anybody had ever seen.

        What's the pig idea? The pig is wearing the robe and wig of a British barrister. The pig's body goes in different shades of yellow from orange to red. He has several books by his feet.

        You want people to look at this pig and think: My sponsor is a law firm and my pig is a lawyer. Cincinnati can't seem to avoid being linked to porkography. Mapplethorpe, Larry Flynt, We're always in it up to our tails.

        Completing the project took: Three weeks.

        What's the matter? I mixed little bits of laser printed silver in with automobile paint and the finish on the lawyer's purple coat so the colors change as you go around it. Now I want to find an old car and paint it the same way.

        We got a late start, and I heard that sanding took a long time so I suggested that if they wanted the pig done fast they could come over and help. So some people from Wood and Lamping came to my house and we had beer and pizza and sanded the pig.

        Your high on the hog was: Strangers felt swinishly free to barge into my back yard and demand information on all aspects of the swine's personal life and habits.

        Pig peeve: I'm going to be hamstrung for saying this, but all the artists worked pro bono on the project. My sponsor was $6,000 in the trough on the project. The artist got $1,000, and after supplies were bought I was left with $360 for three weeks of work. That's $3.26 per hour.

        Best pig tale: The sponsor wrote a poem that is on the scroll the pig holds. It starts “I stand before you at Sixth and Vine and appeal to you on behalf of all swine . . . ”

        Do you consider this art or porkography? It's porkography because, as you can see, under the robe he's butt naked.

        If your pig starred in a movie, who would you cast to play the role? Gerald Depardieu, he's pretty heavy these days.

       

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