A Fable of Our Lives

“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.”– George Orwell, Animal Farm

Emerging dominant in the animal kingdom, humankind has continuously tapped and utilized animals since the dawn of time. Acquiring mastery and control over wild beasts and domesticating a number of species, people have used animals in innumerable ways—as a source of food, clothing, and materials, amusement, physical labor, even affection and companionship. So much benefit have humans received from animals that we may question what have we given in return? Such thought is succinctly expressed in the excerpt from Orwell’s classic.

Yeo Kaa’s new works in this solo exhibition are reminiscent of such line of inquiry, taking us into the sentiments of the animals themselves much like literary pieces where non-human creatures are anthropomorphized. Consisting of resin and metal sculptures, paintings, and a mirror-defined environment, she once again stirs a stark contrast between a pleasing façade and a troubled interior, a kind of opposition always present in her art with its candy-colored depictions of angst and distress or mutilated doll-like figurations. Here, the sculptures represent the image of the animals that appeals to their human master: docile and submissive, cute and harmless, entertaining, ever-obedient, the very characteristics through which we may imagine our pets, plush toys, zoo or circus attractions. The paintings, on the other hand, reveal their hidden suffering—tied, exhausted, wounded and bleeding, as if humans feeling every pain and fully aware of their abuse. 

But just like the allegories meant to function as a metaphor of human lives, these creatures—the cats, dogs, bunnies, and mice—could be humans themselves. The animals are mere headpieces of unmistakably human bodies, albeit stylized.Entering the distorted mirror section, we see our own reflection. We are all animals, after all, and at some point in our lives might have endured a similar plight in the hands of our fellow humans. Perhaps we are no better than the animals we have enslaved, bred, or made captive; we are caught in the same trap and bound on a leash. 

Text by N.M. Marquez