Last week, we gave readers a heads up about artist Miriam Simun's upcoming exhibit, a show focused around human breast milk cheese. Tonight is the opening reception for Simun's "Human Cheese Shop" at the Michael Mut Gallery, and in preparation for the event, which is free and open to the public, we spoke with the artist about the breastmilk Craigslist and commodification of the human body. Intrigued? The show is up through the weekend, but tonight is the night to come and taste the three cheeses Simun has prepared from a human-animal milk blend, which will be paired with food "inspired by the cultural and microbial terrior" of each woman. Simun shed some light on the process of putting the whole thing together.
I think I should start by asking what got you interested in the idea of creating human breast milk cheese to begin with. Well, my background is in working with technology. I think a lot about technology, and I also think a lot about bodies, and the different ways technology lets us commercialize and commodify bodies. I moved to New York not that long ago, and noticed that there is such a huge culture here around concepts like "healthy," "natural," "organic," and "fair-trade." When I eat, I try to be aware of these things, but when it comes down to it, there's so many considerations to think about. So I started really thinking about what it actually means for me to buy something that's "natural" or "organic." And it was pretty overwhelming, so the conclusion I reached was to accept that these things are necessary and then to push it to its furthest extreme. You'd be hard-pressed to find a cheese that's more local, or more natural in the sense that it's evolved through humans.
I feel like a lot of people are going to be curious about the logistics of the cheese: where did this breast milk come from? I used milk from three different women. I found two of them through an online website, a marketplace, specifically for breast milk.
Interesting, I didn't realize there was much of a market for people to buy and sell human breast milk.I didn't know about it going into this either, but there is. It's huge. There are websites that are similar in functionality to Craigslist for just this product, and it's really interesting to see what happens when it's mediated over the internet. There are all sorts of people who use it: there's a section for women to sell to men, there's a section for cancer patients, and bodybuilders, and people with different health issues who believe human breast milk will help them.
So how did you find these women? Do you place a Help Wanted ad? Well, not really. Two of the women I found through information they had posted themselves. And then I posted something that said, "I'm looking for milk to make cheese with," and one woman found me through that.
And you paid for it? Or was it donated? Two of the women I worked with donated it, but one of them I paid. I don't need a ton of milk—I'm making a fairly small amount of cheese, and mixing it with animal milk, and it's pretty high-end. Breast milk is expensive—the going rate is about two dollars an ounce, and I couldn't really afford to buy a huge volume.
So all of these women, are they currently nursing their children?
Yes. They're all producing milk. Some women have trouble breastfeeding and actually overproduce milk. Especially if they're pumping, because your body—if your body doesn't have trouble producing it will produce as much as the child needs, but when you're pumping, it's kind of an artificial way to get the milk out, so you can end up producing more than the child can drink. So all the milk that I've been using is excess milk.
Do you have children yourself? I don't. But if I ever did, I would definitely breastfeed them.
You talk a lot about technology being increasingly involved in the way our food gets produced. Do you think that cheese made from human breast milk has a place in our future food system? How do you think it fits in or is this really just sort of a small-scale exhibit that you are putting together to open a dialogue? I'm really interested in what it means for this to be a viable system. I definitely think it can be, I think it already is. I don't know if you remember that store that started selling breast milk ice cream in London a few months ago?
The one that got sued by Lady Gaga? Yeah. But separate from the Gaga thing, there was a moment there was really fascinating for me to watch—The Health Counsel shut the place down for a few days while they tested the milk, and they ran all these tests and found that it was healthy, and so they actually could not prohibit them…suddenly, this whole thing became a reality. Whether or not they're continuing, I don't know, but it's there, it's exists.
You've had some smaller previews and exhibits about this topic before. What sort of reaction have you been getting up until this point? Oh, it totally ranges. Everything from "that's totally disgusting" to "oh that's so cool," to a lot of vegans telling me, "I'm actually really excited, this is the first cheese I can eat." Some people thing it's exploitative to the women, which then begs the question about animals; and some people are uncomfortable because they don't know who the women are or what they eat, which also begs the question, what else are you eating that you don't know about? Other people are actually saying, "This is quite empowering. We have this uniquely feminized commodity in the marketplace."
So what is the message you're ultimately trying to send with this exhibit? It seems fairly provocative. I'm interested in having a conversation. I'm much more interested in what other people have to say than what I have to say. It is an attention-grabbing idea, and I'm interested in why, because on some level, breast milk is the most natural thing in the world. That's why I think it's such a powerful catalyst, because it spurs conversation around the body and how we're using our bodies. There are so many ways that we commodify and use the things that our bodies produce—a lot of times it ends up being more medicalized, but this is very simple and easy to understand.
The tasting is really about having that conversation, and trying to figure out what place this really has—but also it's about being able to smell, and touch, and taste the cheese, which gives people access to this question in a casual way. I've had people at tastings who think one thing and they are very certain, and then they arrive just flips. And they're like, "Actually, it looks great!" Or, they'll be like, "Oh yeah, of course I would," and then they see the cheese and they're like, "I just...I can't." So something happens there and I'm really interested in that moment. There's very little should-or-shouldn't in this project. It's really about, "Let's examine what we're doing."
