NYAB Event - Stacey M. Holloway “Instinctual Drift”

Stacey M. Holloway “Instinctual Drift”

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Chi Chi and Pablo were Capuchin monkeys who lived in a Florida sanctuary in the nineties. Chi Chi had performed in the circus, and wore a little skirt. She and Pablo had been a couple for twenty years. When Pablo got sick and was taken to the vet, no one thought to bring Chi Chi along, or to bring Pablo’s body back for her to see it when the little guy died, so Chi Chi never got “closure.” She plucked out her fur and stopped eating. The sanctuary tried everything to alleviate her pain, and eventually settled for just numbing it. They ran an extension cord out past the other cages and put a TV in her enclosure. She didn’t really play like she used to, but she started eating again, at least.

According to Psychology Today, “Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness.” No one at the Florida sanctuary would have been at all surprised by the finding that animals demonstrate “intentional behavior,” nor would most pet owners. They’ve been observing their animals demonstrating what we arrogantly deem “human traits” for years, as has Stacey M. Holloway.

Stacey M. Holloway’s astoundingly rendered sculptures of animals combine traditional carving and casting with found or collected parts to “hyper-exaggerate human nature.” The results are staggering depictions of animals with convincing fur surfaces and shiny eyeballs, whose animal nature is rendered accurately, while their “intentional behaviors” are enhanced; a flocked deer balances on four stilts, making her already spindly legs even more precarious, two seals perch nose-to-slippery-nose on a iceberg made of wooden scaffolding. These are gorgeously made sculptures that impress us with their precise craft, but touch us with their less precise (but maybe even more true) feeling.