Hegel and Southern Yard Art

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Hegel and Southern Yard Art: A Brief Discourse on Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis as Applied to Cement Chickens

By applying the Hegelian Dialectical form of analysis to the subliminal urge to acquire and prominently display cement animals in a landscape setting, one can clearly comprehend the Southern affection for yard art. The thesis (ideational entity) is initially defined as any

live, sensate meat-producing animal whose functional characteristics are legitimized by their ability to sustain human life by providing nourishment essential for the survival of the human species.
The antithesis of the fully-functional food source strata of yard animal would therefore be the lurking of swine and poultry within the “yard,” serving as mere pets or for the crass entertainment of lower levels of society. A type of cultural travesty visited upon both the rural and urban body politic, as it were. The synthesis is then obvious.

If, as Hegel explains, the combination of the two (thesis and antithesis) being resolved in a higher form of truth represents synthesis, synthesis therefore can only be proved by the existence of the popularity of cement barnyard animals. The proliferation of cement pigs, and the sister sculptures signified by chickens, roosters, ducks, and turtles, represent, and further solidify, the Southerner’s need to synthesize a wanton carnivorousness with a true appreciation for art.

reprinted with permission: http://www.SouthernYardArt.com