If you were in New York City summer of 2000, you may have felt an urge to go cow tipping. A stampede of gaudily painted fiberglass cows were turning up along city street, in parks, in banks...

Cow Parade gave artists the chance to express their thoughts on New York and cows through a bovine medium. A poor excuse for public art, conceived more as a tourist attraction than as an aesthetic experience, if you ask me.

Most of the cows are painted in Oooo bright colors, to look like subway cars, or taxis, or ballerinas, etc. twee. But film director and artist David Lynch took a more blunt approach.

Lynch's cow is decapitated, its bloody head discarded inside the cow's body, which is torn open. Forks and knives stick into its flanks, ripping the cow's meat. Across its sides the phrase "eat my fear" is written. From all the cows I've seen, Lynch is the only cow artist to make reference to the primary use of cattle in the United States: foodstuff.

According to the New Yorker, Lynch's cow never saw public display in New York. Organizers of the Cow Parade even tried to deny that Lynch had made a cow. The cow was displayed earlier in the year at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens. You can take a look at pictures of the cow from Jeff's Weblog: http://ican.editthispage.com/cowsonparade/

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