The decorative and unsavory intermingle within this work to seduce, captivate, and repel simultaneously. While I continue to explore the objectification of the animal “other,” and the various points where animal existence and commercial culture collide, this work is about the façade of gaiety within the spectacle of animal performance.
My recent trajectory includes researching the history of the animal menagerie and its evolution into zoos, circuses, and carnivals. A menagerie historically has been defined as a collection of wild animals kept in captivity for the curiosity and entertainment of the public. Questioning the cultural representation of these animal collections, I rounded up many images of animals from the Internet to curate my own bestiary. By re-contextualizing these appropriated images with my own, I am creating a series of miniature spectacles—collages utilizing digital images, wood, and paint—that mimic the style of the elaborate dioramas often found in natural history museums.
In concert with the bestiaries, I created a marionette theater that is the stage for an exotic sideshow demonstration. Eventually the stages evolved into assemblages where the use of materials such as recycled cardboard, children’s trinkets, paint, sculpture, and collage, coalesce into an illusion of magical whimsy and amusement. These assemblages are the perfect media to reveal the socio-economic influence that commercial culture exerts over fringe society, and how it naturalizes the treatment of animals as objects. These elaborate animal dramas also reveal the viewer’s participation as both voyeur and protagonist.
In keeping with my artistic focus, the viewer glimpses a tableau seemingly suffused with color, energy and amusements; upon a more careful examination, the precarious postures, binding costumes, and crowded layers bespeak the tension and oft overlooked conditions of these animal spectacles. This visual cacophony underscores the experience of many a zoo- or circus-goer. Undercurrents of unease caused by beholding wild creatures dance, disrupting the excitement and wonder initially felt while watching these wild animals perform.