Kira O’Reilly Gets Naked with Pig for Art

A naked woman and a dead pig. Separately, they’re sexy and tasty. Together, they’re apparently art.

After pickled sheep, unmade beds and painting with elephant dung, some questioned where modern art could go next. Kira O’Reilly will provide her own answer today by spending four hours naked, hugging a dead pig – at the taxpayer’s expense.

The controversial Irish performance artist will invite one person at a time to watch her sit in a specially-constructed set and perform a ‘crushing slow dance’ with the carcass in her arms. She claims the bizarre exhibition is an attempt to ‘identify’ with the pig, which she cuts with a knife during the show.

Visitors to the Newlyn Art Gallery in Newlyn, Cornwall – funded by taxpayers and the lottery – will be allowed to watch her for ten minutes. The gallery has defended its decision to stage the one-off show, but animal rights campaigners have labelled the performance ‘sick’.