The Milking Parlour exhibition will be running from Thursday 21st April until Monday 25th April.
26,500 dairy farms existed in the UK in 2001; by 2011 there were 14,700. In 1950 there were no less than 196,000 dairy farms, which means that over the past 60 years, 92.5 per cent of them have disappeared. More and more the next generation are turning away from dairy farming because they simply cannot afford to make ends meet.
In Bristol, in Spring 2016, Nessie Reid will be exhibiting The Milking Parlour: a performance based public exhibition exploring the values we hold towards our food and the type of relationships we possess with our food and farming system in general. In order to explore these themes, Nessie has chosen to use the medium of milk: something once hailed as a superfood – providing 34 % of our RDA of protein – now undervalued, and often cheaper to buy than bottled water.
Nessie will live with two cows for 5 days in Bristol City Centre, constructing a temporary milking parlour. The intention of taking two cows out of their usual context – the farm- and into an urban environment – the centre of Bristol – is to represent the disconnect between the cities we live in and the food we eat, the milk we consume and the natural processes involved in producing these everyday products.
Free exhibition, drop by at any time.