This man creates lifesize sculptures out of cat hair
Brisbane man Jason Sank has finally found a use for all of the fur our beloved feline companions leave around the house: lifesize wire sculptures.
Sank has produced multiple sculptures, made from wire and then covered with felt and domestic cat hair. When it came to acquiring the fur, Sank struck up a deal with a local pet spa in Kenmore, telling BoingBoing, "I asked a cat groomer – Aristocats Feline Day Spa – to save it for me each month. They brush, cut and vacuum it off. Over the 3 months I worked on the sculptures they supplied me with about a 60 litre tub’s worth of cat hair."
About his motivations for creating these unsettling sculptures, Sank’s biography on the Sculpture on the Edge website says, “Both fearsome and alluring, I hope these fantastical creatures can reflect something of the strange relationship between humans, cats and nature.”
Part of this strange relationship, particularly in Australia, is the fact that cats are an introduced species, and both feral and domestic cats can wreak havoc on wildlife, particularly native bird populations. Sank explains, “The destructive history of the feral cat in Australia stretches back hand in paw hundreds of years to early colonisers and even beyond. Sometimes intentionally introduced, sometimes not, feral cats still pose a major threat to native fauna in the Sunshine Coast.
“They are bigger than their domestic counterparts that many of us know and love and devouring smaller animals at the rate of one hundred and fifty per year, perhaps they will just keep getting bigger…”
The mythology surrounding the Cat Men themselves is shrouded in mystery: “No-one quite knows where these cat men came from. Some modern day outback mutation? Heralds from a brighter and more accepting transhuman future?.. Or maybe an ancient terror that has always been lurking just out of sight?..”
The response on Instagram has been overwhelmingly positive, with people commenting praise like, “I am obsessed with your work”, “I am so f****** mesmerized by these !!! Your mind is so expansive and incredible” and “Amazing and horrifying, so glad I’ve found your art”.
The Cat Men are an impressive feat of creation and artistry, both fascinating in their uniqueness and unsettling in their resemblance to humans. They fall firmly within the uncanny valley; the place beyond the comforting familiarity of human-like appearance and behaviour, where many things that give us the creeps reside.
Image: Instagram