THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

In an installation called “Portable Fish Farm”, Harrison filled six 20-foot-long tanks with catfish, oysters, lobsters and brine shrimp to explore how humans might feed themselves in a polluted environment.  The conclusion of the work would be a fish fry – a feast of hush puppies made from those catfish.  But problems arose when someone discovered that the way those fish would be harvested would be through electrocution, which is apparently the most humane way to dispense them.   The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals protested the “ritual slaughter” of the defenceless fish, and the comedian Spike Milligan smashed a gallery window with a hammer.

Green/Harrison