Rendering Cruelty in Art and Politics - In conversation with Sue Coe
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Sue Coe and Michael John Addario, AnimalLiberationCurrents.com
July 2017

As I am artist, am biased of course, but the enormity of the crime against other animals, against the poor, can only be described by art. When Yeats was asked to do a ‘war poem’ by the Government, he asked what could he possibly say to a politician?

Art functions on a level that maybe only animals understand, because their lives are the art.

Sue Coe one has long been the single most recognizable artist dealing with animal liberation politics and one of the few to draw explicit connections between animal oppression and capitalism. In work that has spanned decades, she has forced readers to consider the horrors of animal subjugation and inspired many activists to re-think the role of class struggle in the movement. Her most recent collection of art supports a movement call to action: The Animals’ Vegan Manifesto. The works are inspired by graphic novels of the 1930’s and are in the tradition of Goya, Kollwitz, and Groszand. Dedicated to animals liberated from slaughterhouses, the 115 black-and-white woodcut illustrations span an enormous range of ideas, contexts and interpretations. As is often the case with Sue’s work, many images are troubling and provocative.

In an email conversation which spanned many weeks, Animal Liberation Current’s editor Michael John Addario spoke with Sue about the Manifesto, the possibilities for animal liberation struggle and her activist work as an artist and educator.

For the entire interview and six more of Sue Coe's amazing images, CLICK HERE for the PDF!

All images are from The Animals' Vegan Manifesto.

Meat Starves Children
Meat Starves Children by Sue Coe, GraphicWitness.org


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