What is the connection between large orange cats and the words "fear" and "denial" on pendants hanging from a gold chain that is connected?
In the work of Pepon Osorio, the cats comes from the domestic aesthetic of his mother's house, as she would have kitsch objects like these stuffed cats as decoration. And the words "fear" and "denial" play as visual metaphors for the power of that which is not acknowledged. Feelings that often are present in households, or even in the Latino community of New York, but are often never addressed.
Why did the artist use cat figurines in this work?
The artist explains that these figures remind him of the sort of kitschy knick-knacks he would see around his mother's house when he would leave art school to visit.
For him, these figurines were the opposite of the "high art" that he was studying in school. So, he created a "high art" version of the tchotchkes.