James McLoughlin

My interest in the imbalance between the human and animal world informs my work. I began investigating the toxic algae bloom that took place in Lough Neagh in 2023 that had a damaging effect on the local wildlife and environment in an around the Lough. Amongst its many endowments, the Lough provides a habitat to a population of eel, an animal that humans have had a long and historic relationship of consumption, even using eels as a form of payment. The eel is now a critically endangered animal whose population has dropped by over 95% due to many factors including climate change and pollution.  

Karl Marx proposed the theory, Fetishism of Production which refers to Commodity Fetishism as the concept of not recognising the human labour, social value and resource use in the production of a commodity. In my piece 'Commodity Fetishism' the eels describe how humans have turned the natural world into a commodity that ignores the decline of habitats and populations. Eels are sentient beings, treated as a product and here they express that sentience in rebellion by trying to escape and disturbing the tableware and a reflection on how we eat and what we eat.