GILT is an exhibition that focuses on the use of Pigs both as disembodied materials and living beings with individuality, vibrancy, and sensory richness. The title refers to dual meanings that bridge beings and objects: a gilt is an assigned female at birth Pig that has reproduced, and gilt is also a thin layer of gold such as a golden veneer.

Many of the works in the show, predominantly the casts of 3D-printed Pig organs, are made of recycled pewter with added copper, giving them a golden sheen. Several pieces look at gender-based violence embedded in agricultural practices, including Piglet castration. There is a sensuality to the cold, hard edges of the work, like in the piece that turns around the phrase pearls before swine and includes a metal Pig turner chain. A ceiling medallion, embedded with recycled Hog hair, references the material history of violence embedded in the Hog-hair plaster of the gallery’s walls.

The sensory richness of GILT is further noted with the scent of roses that wafts through the gallery from soy wax candles that burn from both ends. These candles reference the history of lard-based lighting while containing scent notes, rose otto and star anise, enjoyable to Pigs. An artist-made enrichment tool designed for foraging, rooting, and scent work is also on display. The enrichment objects will be donated to the Pigs living in a sanctuary in Ohio after the exhibition.

Cincinnati was once referred to as Porkopolis, and Chicago as the Hog Butcher of the World. These two cities are connected by their agricultural histories, and this exhibition, with Chicago-based artist D Rosen and BasketShop in Cincinnati, bridges the two Midwestern cities. Pigs were used as part of trash management in Cincinnati from 1830 to 1862; the exhibition subtly touches on this history while engaging sustainability through its use of recycled materials.

GILT is a hard-edged examination of the way Pigs are extracted from and treated as materials across historical and contemporary architectural, agricultural, technological, linguistic, and fashioned contexts—while striving to honor their individuality and beauty as living beings.

D Rosen lives in Chicago, on the stolen lands of the Council of the Three Fires, and frames their practice around animality as a tangle of ecologies and cultural identities. Their writing appears in Queering Nature (2024), Routledge’s Olfactory Art and the Political (2021), and A Trace of Fashioned Violence (2020). Rosen’s work has been exhibited internationally, including projects at ACRE in Chicago, Arnarhlíð 1 in Reykjavík, and UNC Charlotte, with recent shows at 65GRAND in 2025. They have participated in residencies at Skowhegan, S12, JOYA, and HEIMA, received multiple grants, and are now presenting their first solo show in Ohio.

This exhibition was made possible by generous contributions awarded by the Ohio Arts Council and in part by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.