Nurturing is a recurring theme in Janine Antoni’s work. In 2038, the artist, reclining in a watering trough, appears to nurse a cow identified as 2038 by its metal ear tag. Here, Antoni conflates the nurturing roles of women and cows while at the same time contrasting the tenderness of this encounter with the reality of 2038’s otherwise anonymous, functional existence as provider of milk, meat, and hide for human use.

Label from One Another: Spiderlike, I Spin Mirrors, March 7–June 1, 2014