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Why, Oh, Why, Would She Wear a Fly?

Written by PETA

Posted 08-05-2010

16 Comments

Here we go again—another creepy creation. This one was made by artist Jessica Harrison:

I'll give her this: I can see how she might find tiny flies' legs to be reminiscent of human eyelashes, but couldn't she just leave it at that? I mean, my rescued beagle Lulu, R.I.P., had ears that felt just like velvet, but that didn't inspire me to go around hacking off hounds' ears to make a beagle blazer.

Perhaps Harrison thought no one would care if she exploited flies? Wrong. After all, true compassion has no boundaries—besides, there's no good reason to wear animals—or insects.

Written by Karin Bennett

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Tags:

fur, insects, weight loss, health, fly, eyelashes, creepy

Recent Comments

Anon commented:

8-23-2010 10:49 AM

Good try "jessica" but you still fail at life and this is still completely repulsive. I assume you failed that "art class" you were in?
Jessica Harrison commented:

8-11-2010 10:05 AM

Dear PETA bloggers Please note that no flies were killed to make this short video clip most were collected from window sills some came from maggots that I bought at a fishing tackle shop that were destined to be pierced alive with a fishing hook to be used as bait to catch fish. The flies got to hatch fly eat and live their natural life span instead of ending up on the end of a hook. The video was not made as a fashion or style statement or to encourage others to pull apart flies to use as accessories but was a small work based on research into genetics body modification and the use of flies in genetical testing due to their similarity to the human genome. I respect all life down to the smallest creature and I am saddened that this work has been taken as an act of torture rather than a celebration of the common fly. No flies were tortured or murdered to make the piece instead it is the use of animals that died a natural or unpreventable death as in the vein of artists like Polly Morgan or Noble Webster. The work is admittedly quite disgusting and is not something I would do now it was made several years ago when I was an art student and not thinking about issues like health and safety. Luckily I did not contract any eye infection maybe the fly is not as disgusting as everyone thinks? It was not my intention to incite anger or controversy with this work I do not enjoy those aspects of the art world. I am now making sculpture in stone and ceramics.
Ali commented:

8-9-2010 11:06 PM

Speaking of insects this reminds me. You should always read the labels of everything. Sobe zero drinks use Cochineal extract as coloring....bug juice. Stick to Vitamin water zero. No bug juice there.
Paul Ryder commented:

8-9-2010 10:48 AM

Gross yes but the flies were already dead is this really the best use of PETA resources?
James commented:

8-9-2010 6:11 AM

As much as I strongly disagree with this on every level I mean come on...flys legs what an..awful idea It does however bring out a lot of silly people on the other side. People saying "my friend has a dog phobia and doesn't go round killing dogs". That's good for her but people without phobias are far more likely to go ahead and kill an animal...and the amount of people going on and on about the pain these poor flies had inflicted on them as she butchered them alive one by one...they're flies. People kill flies flies die on windowsills however they die it's not hard at all to find them. It's sad to see how people react to that like she's this horrid person simply cause of dead flies. However that doesn't change my view on how disgusting and truly awful is is to wear them regardless of that!!!
diane field commented:

8-8-2010 12:33 PM

This is really gross but she said on her blog that the flies all were dead and died natrually before she harvested the legs. So I am not sure she tortured them or pulled the legs off. It is still really creepy and disgusting though.
C commented:

8-8-2010 10:50 AM

"The work obviously pushes the boundaries of what is and what is not acceptable in its creation and use of animal parts the flies came from maggots bought from a fishing tackle shop that were destined for the end of a fishing line. They hatched in my studio flew around quite a lot and after a few days died naturally. At this point I used the legs and wings for explorative sculptural purposes in the case of Flylashes gluing them to my own eye using eyelash glue." Quoted from her Vimeo. So the flies lived out a full life and died naturally instead of being used to catch and murder fish and she made used of their dead bodies. And this is bad? Yeah it's gross that she glued fly legs to her face but she didn't pin them down alive and rip their legs of while they struggled. She gave them a home let them live out their life and die naturally.
Raquel commented:

8-7-2010 12:44 AM

Oh gag! I think I just threw up in my mouth a little!
maureen commented:

8-6-2010 10:14 PM

Who in Gods green earth said Jessica was an artist? Artist of what??? That does not look like art to me is this a fly trap???
Cie Cheesemeister commented:

8-6-2010 7:13 PM

Creepy and in bad taste and there is a saying about people who pull the legs off flies being future serial killers. Generally speaking I'm not going to get up in arms about killing flies what with factory farming and torture of cats and dogs going on out there but going to these kind of lengths pulling the legs off flies there's something kinda wrong there. It's a different thing than smacking an offending fly. And yes there is a difference between killing a fly and torturing a kitten or puppy. A huge difference.

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