Hat Box

Julie Malen

Nada House, December 13 - January 15, 2021

Two cat forms sit atop a tower. Nested flatly on their stomachs, each cat is packaged in a constricting bache leather. Once covered in fur, the bodies are now elegantly smooth. The soft details of each body are portrayed by the taught material.

When a cat is blinded, their whiskers grow, enhancing their ability to navigate their world without sight. These packaged bodies hold no eyes. Their ears are marbled mandibles, digits incapable of feeling sound. At the end of each finger is a sleek long fingernail, an extra-sensory evolution.

This empty box is a house for a hat, except there is no hat. It contains a glowing reflecting pool, one which looks upward beyond its ceiling. On that lid sits a familiar form, a rabbit, suffocated in gray. Unable to gnaw, its’ teeth puncture the sheen, exposed and hungry.