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CNN Live At Daybreak
Bovine Poets Who Take 'How Now Brown Cow' to Whole New Level
Aired December 11, 2002 - 05:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: When you think of poetry, you probably don't ever think of anything like cows.
But CNN's Jeanne Moos reports on bovine poets who take how now brown cow to a whole new level.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The poet Ogden Nash once wrote, "The cow is of the bovine ilk, one end is moo, the other milk." Well, now the shoe is on the other hoof. The cows are the ones composing poetry.
SUE RUESTOW, FARM OWNER: He said he wanted to write words on cows. I said you've got to be kidding me.
MOOS: The cow project was art student Nathan Banks' senior thesis at Purchase College.
NATHAN BANKS, PURCHASE COLLEGE ART STUDENT: Using cows to make a poem.
MOOS: Even if bovine poetry requires subtitles from "the line" to "who are there" no one said cow poetry makes sense. Nate asked some farmer friends of his if he could use the cows on their upstate New York farm.
JERRY RUESTOW, FARM OWNER: I thought it was odd.
MOOS: But farmer Jerry Ruestow said yes. Nate picked words randomly out of an art history book and painted them on both sides of 62 cows. The pain was harmless.
BANKS: And then some of the cows never really felt comfortable with me writing on them. I got squished and stepped on.
MOOS: Even kicked. To consummate this eccentric concept, Nate invited fellow students to photograph and observe the poetic couplings that occurred as the cows were put out to pasture.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a happening of sorts.
MOOS: Even the cows agreed, it is happening. Some of the most moving musings were composed by cows all by their lonesome, while the more loquacious lines were as many as five cows long.
BANKS: My favorite phrase was organic conceptual art as poetry. MOOS: Nate has done other off the wall art projects. He shaved off his hair over 53 days to mimic male pattern baldness. He examined patriotism by drinking milk and food coloring to throw up in red, white and blue. But Nate isn't the first artist to inscribe animals. In the mid-'90s, artist Shue Bing (ph) printed nonsensical words in Chinese and English characters on a pair of pigs. Then the audience watched them mate on a bed of books. That makes cow poetry seem almost comprehensible.
(on camera): Is it poetry, do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do. And I'm a poetry major.
MOOS (voice-over): At the exhibit's opening, onlookers perused the poetry as if it were penned by E.E. Cummings' cow counterpart. But what's it all mean?
(on camera): How are cow?
BANKS: I don't know.
MOOS: I'm at a loss.
(voice-over): When the video finished playing...
(on camera): You're leaving before the credits.
(voice-over): The ladies were listed alphabetically. Holy cow, they even composed milk on. But like any good poet, a bovine must be willing to eat her words.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, Purchase, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Thank you, Jeanne.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Level>
Aired December 11, 2002 - 05:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: When you think of poetry, you probably don't ever think of anything like cows.
But CNN's Jeanne Moos reports on bovine poets who take how now brown cow to a whole new level.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The poet Ogden Nash once wrote, "The cow is of the bovine ilk, one end is moo, the other milk." Well, now the shoe is on the other hoof. The cows are the ones composing poetry.
SUE RUESTOW, FARM OWNER: He said he wanted to write words on cows. I said you've got to be kidding me.
MOOS: The cow project was art student Nathan Banks' senior thesis at Purchase College.
NATHAN BANKS, PURCHASE COLLEGE ART STUDENT: Using cows to make a poem.
MOOS: Even if bovine poetry requires subtitles from "the line" to "who are there" no one said cow poetry makes sense. Nate asked some farmer friends of his if he could use the cows on their upstate New York farm.
JERRY RUESTOW, FARM OWNER: I thought it was odd.
MOOS: But farmer Jerry Ruestow said yes. Nate picked words randomly out of an art history book and painted them on both sides of 62 cows. The pain was harmless.
BANKS: And then some of the cows never really felt comfortable with me writing on them. I got squished and stepped on.
MOOS: Even kicked. To consummate this eccentric concept, Nate invited fellow students to photograph and observe the poetic couplings that occurred as the cows were put out to pasture.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a happening of sorts.
MOOS: Even the cows agreed, it is happening. Some of the most moving musings were composed by cows all by their lonesome, while the more loquacious lines were as many as five cows long.
BANKS: My favorite phrase was organic conceptual art as poetry. MOOS: Nate has done other off the wall art projects. He shaved off his hair over 53 days to mimic male pattern baldness. He examined patriotism by drinking milk and food coloring to throw up in red, white and blue. But Nate isn't the first artist to inscribe animals. In the mid-'90s, artist Shue Bing (ph) printed nonsensical words in Chinese and English characters on a pair of pigs. Then the audience watched them mate on a bed of books. That makes cow poetry seem almost comprehensible.
(on camera): Is it poetry, do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do. And I'm a poetry major.
MOOS (voice-over): At the exhibit's opening, onlookers perused the poetry as if it were penned by E.E. Cummings' cow counterpart. But what's it all mean?
(on camera): How are cow?
BANKS: I don't know.
MOOS: I'm at a loss.
(voice-over): When the video finished playing...
(on camera): You're leaving before the credits.
(voice-over): The ladies were listed alphabetically. Holy cow, they even composed milk on. But like any good poet, a bovine must be willing to eat her words.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, Purchase, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Thank you, Jeanne.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Level>
