These photographs present cow organs suspended from metal hooks; in contrast to animal parts displayed at a butcher shop, in this case their interior is exposed to the eye. This work endows the innards with a double symbolic meaning: on the one hand, they allude to the Christian story of the crucifixion, which is associated with death and human suffering. At the same time, the hanging of artworks, which serves to produce an experience of the sublime. Bleier neutralizes these organs and detaches them from their environment by hanging them with a baroque flourish, and then photographs them in the new environment she has created – transforming them from animal organs into beautiful objects of consumption.

Bleier’s work may be taken to relate to the tradition of still-life painting, while substituting a camera for the paintbrush. At first glance, one is astonished by the beauty of the photographs; sustained observation, however, gives rise to an aesthetic experience that is shaped by the contradiction between the beauty of the photographed objects and our intellectual and emotional reaction to their identification as animal organs. In contrast to still-life paintings, which present game animals as still whole, with no traces of blood, these works reveal aspects that are normally concealed from our eyes in order to comply with Western social codes. Innards are not supposed to be viewed as aesthetic objects of contemplation in Western culture. Despite their status as an integral part of the body, their exposure provokes a sense of disgust. Like many of the other works in this exhibition, these photographs provoke an initial experience of astonishment, which is followed by a sense of disenchantment and horror.

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