With the Democratic National Convention rapidly approaching, a series of Denver-area artists have come together for an exhibition called Dialog: Denver, which is described as “politically-themed exhibition addressing issues of both American and global import” and will run during the convention.

Hadley Hooper posted this image, which she created for the exhibition (click through for her blog post and full size image):

Free Range by Hadley Hooper

She describes the inspiration for the piece:

I consulted Jo Tyler to get her thoughts on what what might be interesting to cover; she is very active in the world of animal rights issues and I knew that she’d have some great advice. Jo came up with some topics and the one I chose was about the misnomer ‘Free Range’ used in relation to chicken and egg production.  Michael Pollan in the Omnivore’s Dilemma wrote of hens laying eggs in large metal storage buildings, dimly lit but uncaged - thus the phrase ‘free-range’- with a small door on one end that leads outside. The door opens so infrequently the chickens close to the exit are the only to take advantage, that is if they realize what it is. Typically chickens get about a square foot  to ‘range’ in with up to 2,000 other individuals and are debeaked so that they don’t hurt each other.  I believe that people who are making these shopping choices are trying to do the right thing, it’s disappointing that these impulses are taken advantage of still at the detriment to millions of animals daily.

Very powerful work - also check out FactoryFarm.org, whose url is actually in the image, if you scan it closely.

Thanks for posting Hadley - always great to see your work even if we can’t be there to see it in person.