From Pets to Pest

1999 - Squirrel skins

For From Pets to Pest, I carried squirrel skins from Java to Bangkok. These squirrels, which are considered pests in Indonesia, were killed by farmers near Yogyakarta. I sewed their skins around the trees in a small park in the centre of Bangkok. The tapestry of skins created a tension between the bodies of squirrels exterminated as pests, and those that lived in the trees, beloved by local people and fed daily. 

This work reflects on the idea that you can be loved in one place and hated in another.