1941/AIDA

A Story About Escape and Trespass, Home and Habitat as Determined by a Cow

Authors

  • Lee Deigaard independent artist and write

Abstract

1941/AIDA is the story of a cow who left home a number and returned a legend. An ongoing multimedia art and research project comprises text and poems, drawings, site-specific sculptures, cyanotypes, photographs, videos, presentations, interviews, and interactions. It looks closely in tribute and in empathetic forensic detail at the decisions a singular cow makes under duress in support of her own agency, relationships within herds within the beef industry in the southeastern US, and between mothers and calves in a market driven economy determining not just the length of their lives but where they live, with whom, and how. Important to the story is the ongoing dialogue between farmer and artist mediated, inspired, and progressed by the cow 1941: how she navigates and insists, how positions she takes are utterly reasonable yet provocative for being actions of individuality and claim. How she “makes her point strong” in the words of the farmer (who does not own the cow but is responsible for her) and even upon her return “home” from her liberty-defining escape to the other side of a flooded creek (where the artist lives) and its attendant risks along with freedoms, continues her “transgressions” and her insistence on choice banked in defiance.  Who she is changes and amplifies those who encounter her, human and non-human. She ruptures expectations. She defines her community and explores where she belongs by placement and where by choice and claim.   
Section
Essays and Articles (non peer-reviewed)

Published

2025-03-23

How to Cite

Deigaard, L. (2025). 1941/AIDA: A Story About Escape and Trespass, Home and Habitat as Determined by a Cow. TRACE ∴ Journal for Human-Animal Studies, 11, 122–146. Retrieved from https://trace.journal.fi/article/view/146070