the bear and the goose

20 x 15 cm
Acrylic, conte crayon, pencil & ballpoint pen on photograph
 
Fairy tales and folk tales often feature animals that show wild traits, the cunning fox, the wily wolf and maybe a kind, strong bear. These tales are told to children to scare and reinforce good behaviour and nearly always have a terrifying element or frightening part, which usually ends badly for the featured animal, wolves chopped up by woodcutters or little pigs that have been eaten. The little children featured learn their lessons about the wildness of nature. Geese are featured in farmyard stories and bears are featured in more wooded zones. 
Geese and bears are used as harvest animals. Cruelly kept in small cages and shackled by humans. Geese are force feed corn mush so that their livers swell unnaturally, the livers are then removed minced to produce foie gras pate, a delicacy no less. Bears are kept in tiny cages, so small that they can hardly move. A pipe and tap are inserted into the bear’s bile duct directly from the outside, like a box of wine. The stomach bile can then be harvested from these bears when required; the bear will produce more in time. The bile is used in traditional medicines of Asia. In ancient times this was a rare and difficult thing to obtain like the tears of a swan or powdered unicorn horn. Now there are too many people, too much demand and the methods are industrial. 
Who are the terrorising creatures in these modern day fairy tales? In a world where we can live out our fantasies.