There's a Cat among the Pigeons: Steven Rosin

Steven Rosin
There's a Cat Among the Pigeons
Bullet lead, acrylic paint, and lacquer on hand-carved wood
TLC Extension Collection (South Africa, 2020)

Overview: Sculptures of a bird with the head of a cat.

Artist's Statement: 'There's a Cat among the Pigeons' This sculptural 'flock' is derived from the Aesop's fable called The Cat and the Birds, which goes as follows: A Cat was growing very thin. As you have guessed, he did not get enough to eat. One day he heard that some Birds in the neighbourhood were ailing and needed a doctor. So he put on a pair of spectacles, and with a leather box in his hand, knocked at the door of the Bird’s home. The Birds peeped out, and Dr. Cat, with much solicitude, asked how they were. He would be very happy to give them some medicine. “Tweet, tweet,” laughed the Birds. “Very smart, aren’t you? We are very well, thank you, and more so, if you only keep away from here.” Sometimes the cure can be more dangerous...

And here's my artist statement in response to the Corona Event: A macabre dance of dubious origins and questionable rhythm played out to a reluctant audience in an empty theatre

Mark Auslander:  Since the Covid-19 crisis began, the world has seen tens of thousands of hagiographic images, from street murals to high art, centered on the figure of the heroic medical worker, the beloved frontline warrior of the current struggle. Rosin's sculpture is so far as I know unique in casting a medical figure, here marked with the familiar red cross, as the villain of the story.

So who precisely is the cat in the artist's rendition of Aesop's fable, trying to sneak his way into the pigeon's house? One approach would be to read him as the novel coronavirus itself, whose protein spikes in effect knock on the front door of our cells, masquerading as a benevolent protein to gain admission through the cell's protective outer membrane, only to seize control of the cell's "programming" and transform it into a factory for producing viral RNA that proliferates through the body. In that sense, the hybrid bird-cat could seen as an image of the hybridity of our vital-invaded cells and bodies, paralleling Ella Conjé's vision of a zoomorph human-horse hybrid.

The artist's statement that the "cure is more dangerous..[than the disease]," however, would seem to suggest that  he views the deceitful cat as an avatar of the Lockdown itself. Here in the United States, this position is usually associated with rightist supporters of President Trump. Having recently lived in the Michigan Lansing area, where anti Lockdown protesters rallied at the State Capitol, some bearing Confederate flags and automatic weapons, I must admit that I instinctively recoil from the position.  The current predicament of Brazil, where Federal leadership has heaped scorn on the danger of Covid-19, seems disturbingly instructive, as the nation's infection rate has climbed to the world's second highest.

However, it must be acknowledged that in the South African context the "cure" of the Lockdown has been enormously challenging for the nation's poor, who are overwhelming located in under-served communities of color.  The work of artist's in evoking this saga is enormously important. The impact of economic shutdown in these locations is painfully and poignantly illustrated, for example, by the embroidered small tapestries produced by the Heartworks Stitching Club in Cape Town; by Themba Khumalo's haunting drawing of the seemingly endless queues for food parcels; and Kim Berman's depiction of the ravages of forced shantytown removals in her "State of Disaster."  Clearly.  Lockdown absent systematic economic assistance (including, many would argue, a universal basic guaranteed income) and a highly efficient and accessible public health system, clearly poses terrible burdens on already precarious and marginalized sectors of society. In that sense, the artist's choice of bullet lead, itself a pernicious neurotoxin, for this hybrid sculpture is all too apt; the nation's poor are targets of multiple assaults, born of the virus itself and of state response that tragically fails so many in their time of greatest need.

For more information:

www.artistproofstudio.co.za
 https://www.thelockdowncollection.com/extension-collection

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