In August 2024, the artwork collective MSCHF launched its newest provocation: it had bought a younger cow named Angus. The calf, MSCHF defined, can be presold as 1,200 hamburgers and 4 leather-based purses dubbed “Angus Tokens” to be produced as soon as the animal reached slaughtering age. The catch? If over half of the patrons cancel their purchases by 13 March 2026 through a web based “regret portal”, Angus might be saved and dwell the remainder of his life in an animal sanctuary. With simply over two months left, the cow’s destiny seems bleak as at present lower than a 3rd of patrons (31.8% as of this writing) have opted to save lots of Angus.
Our Cow Angus, because the undertaking is known as, goals to attract consideration to the realities of the meals business. In keeping with the USA Division of Agriculture, roughly 32 million cattle and calves had been slaughtered within the nation for beef manufacturing in 2024. On Angus’s web site, MSCHF notes the affect of meat consumption on local weather change.
“A lot of MSCHF’s work revolves round creating improbable financial transactions and relationships within the business-product-consumer triad; it’s central to such speculative/vital industrial preparations that we do precisely what we are saying we’ll,” MSCHF co-founder Kevin Wiesner tells The Artwork Newspaper.
By making Angus a spectacle, MSCHF has conceptually narrowed the hole between consumption and manufacturing, rendering his circumstances a microcosm of what occurs on an immense scale globally. Whereas humane slaughter laws exist, exposés and documentaries abound that reveal deplorable situations for a lot of animals bred for slaughter. Certainly, the artists attest that Angus has been spared from these poor situations, spending his first two years of life on an enormous farm “frolicking with nary a care”, as reported in his on-line picture diary.
A burger token (proper) and burger token packaging (left) for MSCHF’s undertaking Our Cow Angus (2024-26) Courtesy MSCHF
On-line reactions on platforms like Reddit, Discord and Instagram have various from enthusiastic to enraged, with some calling the undertaking a merciless social experiment and even a advertising rip-off. Others have implored commenters to contemplate their very own meat consumption, noting that Angus is only one cow.
“Individuals are actually taken with Angus, and we proceed to be requested about him continuously,” Wiesner says. “My favorite was a bunch of scholars who stored mis-naming the undertaking ‘Our Buddy Angus’.”
MSCHF is thought for cooking up initiatives that elicit sturdy responses. In 2022, the group put in an ATM at Artwork Basel Miami Seashore with Perrotin that ranked customers by the funds of their financial institution accounts, displaying the quantity publicly on the display in an absurd gamification of wealth. The next 12 months, MSCHF created a microscopic Louis Vuitton purse barely seen to the bare eye to critique the style business. In maybe its most contentious endeavour, MSCHF partnered with musician Lil Nas X to create customized Nike sneakers with satanic imagery and a drop of human blood. The undertaking garnered important backlash, together with a lawsuit from Nike and disapproval from Folks for the Moral Remedy of Animals (Peta).
Whereas Peta didn’t reply to a request for remark relating to Our Cow Angus, the organisation informed Quick Firm in 2024: “At a time when most individuals want to see violence subtle, it’s shameful for MSCHF to make a recreation out of snuffing out a life.”
For its half, MSCHF says Our Cow Angus is about “actionable particular person remorse”. Whereas the collective technically has management over Angus’s destiny, it plans to uphold the choices of the patrons. “We are going to completely flip Angus into burgers and baggage and fulfil everybody’s orders if it involves it,” says Wiesner.
Up to now, he provides, the return of Angus Tokens have been higher than the group anticipated. One of many purses initially bought for $1,200 has been returned, which represents 12.5% of the full shares, as purses are given a considerably increased voting share than hamburgers.
The design for the purses that 4 patrons will obtain if MSCHF’s undertaking Our Cow Angus (2024-26) continues on its present trajectory Courtesy MSCHF
“From messages we’ve noticed in Discord, one of many different Angus Bag holders has professed that if their bag would save Angus, they are going to give it as much as full the vote,” says Wiesner. “If true, Angus ‘solely’ wants to realize one other 18.2% ‘save’ vote earlier than reaching that threshold.”
Notably, Angus Tokens might be resold, that means that though the unique merchandise bought out, anybody who buys the tokens on the secondary market can have a say within the cow’s future.
“It offers somebody motivated to save lots of Angus the flexibility to purchase and subsequently quit a number of Angus Tokens, multiplying their contribution in the direction of preserving his life,” Wiesner says. “We thought it potential, for instance, that an organisation like Peta would possibly take monetary motion to save lots of him. At its core, Our Cow Angus is about consumerism, and secondary market transactions are an vital layer of that.”
Unsurprisingly, the undertaking’s resale costs have elevated considerably. As of this writing a token representing a three-pack of hamburgers that initially bought for $35 is on provide for $298 on StockX. At present, not one of the 4 purses representing the very best voting proportion are on provide, and the outlook for Angus appears to be like powerful as leather-based.
