Queenie poster 

Curator: This arresting poster, “Queenie poster,” employs mixed-media collage alongside painting and acrylics. The piece looks to be by the contemporary artist, Sue Coe. What's your initial reaction to it? Editor: It’s intensely visceral, with a strong narrative pull. The color palette, though seemingly bright at first glance, feels disturbing with its cartoonish quality combined with brutal subject matter. Curator: Indeed, Coe’s work is known for its confrontational approach. The scenes depicted point to critical social commentary on the meat industry and urban existence. There are layers of imagery here—a collision between rural scenes and city streets, and perhaps different notions of living in safety. Editor: Look at the recurrence of cows – printed in the "Newsday" paper headline as 'ROGUE COW', entering the "Astoria Live Poultry", and paraded as if it was the arrival of royals or a religious procession; also there are details like a rainbow, ironically decorating this landscape of imminent death and urban angst. What do these creatures symbolize, moving from pasture to slaughterhouse? Curator: Given Coe’s social-realist approach, it’s hard to see them as anything but emblems of systemic exploitation. The parade can be seen as a dark commentary on our societal amnesia and detachment. And the collage of text – it evokes feelings of disorientation from current, yet passing news. Editor: Absolutely, but they also evoke older notions. Animals as sacrificial offerings; there’s an ancient connection there. The ‘Rogue Cow’ in the newspaper becomes more than a local incident; it symbolizes a break from the expected, a disruption in the cycle. Curator: Perhaps a glimmer of resistance, then, against established industrial and cultural norms? I also read it as indictment on institutional indifference and our active participation. Editor: The artist challenges us, through grotesque depiction, to confront our own complicity and consider the wider implications of seemingly everyday consumption choices. It forces one to re-evaluate our role in perpetuating a system that inflicts so much suffering. Curator: Well said. "Queenie poster," for me, underscores the potency of visual art in critiquing cultural assumptions. Editor: Yes, it also emphasizes the deeply engrained connection between symbols, society, and suppressed emotion.