Cathy Smith year of the cow exhibition August 2021

Celebrating the Year of the Ox

Cathy Smith

Ox: any domesticated bovine animal kept for milk or meat; a cow or bull.

noun: ox; plural noun: oxen

Chinese Horoscope 2021 – Year of the Metal Ox.

In the Chinese Zodiac, the Ox is very hardworking and methodical. 2021 is going to be a year when work will get rewarded.  This year will be lucky and perfect to focus on relationships, whether friendships or love.

People born in the Year of the Ox are reliable, strong, fair, patient, kind, methodical, calm, and trustworthy. Not all the traits are positive though; oxen are also opinionated and stubborn.  But while they are also perceived as being less social and lacking in communication skills, those born in the Year of the Ox greatly value their close relationships, making them loyal friends.

Several people have seemed bemused when told the theme of my work is Year of the Ox.  I am bemused by their surprise that my work in 2021 relates to cattle.

Excepting a few years spent in Melbourne while studying, my habitat has always included the bovine (this may explain my slow demeanour).  I grew up on a dairy farm, feeding calves when 5 years old and milking from the age of seven.  For the last forty years Jeff and I have farmed beef cattle (much easier than dairy farming).

My artwork continues to reflect aspects of my surroundings, natural phenomena and environmental concerns

The majority of work shown here has been developed from a cutout of a small black dancing cow originally used in a large and changing month-long installation Red soil/black soil at WGAC in 2013.  (see right)

She is the sole survivor of a group of 5 Angus cows who took up less than .05% of the work.  Somehow saved from both truck and green dream, she waited patiently in a box of assorted notes and drafts, and has now morphed into a new set of 5 sketches that are the basis of the work here.

What about the Horns?

Most cattle breeds are naturally horned.  Dairy cattle in particular, usually have their horn buds removed when young.  This is to improve safety in the herd (and for the farming family).  Having had a small number of Scottish Highland Cattle in with a large group of Angus cattle I have seen the generous area of personal space granted to horned bovines.

For as long as records are available, a few cattle breeds, including Angus, have been naturally polled (hornless), affording an advantage in terms of unbruised meat available for human consumption, if not in terms of natural assertiveness.

What’s with the Ox in a Box?

This lady combines the head of a somewhat grumpy ox from a Bosch Nativity (see right) painting with other variations of the original image.

Why the red hoofs/shoes?

Red = Happiness, Success and Good Fortune (www.chinahighlights.com)

Red represents fire and is the most popular colour in China. It is also the national colour representing happiness, beauty, vitality, good luck, success and good fortune and lavishly used in festivals and other important events and celebrations.  Red envelopes are stuffed with money and given as gifts during Chinese New Year.  (the artist is happy to graciously accept any such contributions)

The Red Shoes is a 1948 British film which follows Victoria Page a ballerina who joins the world renowned Ballet Lermontov.

Cows are herd animals, forming social groups, and running creches where they take turns guarding calves daily while the rest of the group feed.  As suggested on social media, although strictly herbivores, politically left-leaning bovine can be easily identified by their need to wear red shoes in an attempt to disguise possible blood spills made during the consumption of the life fluids of defenseless children.

And no, I was not born in the Year of the Ox.