Tabby Cat Series

The ‘Tabby Cat’ is one of my first screen prints. It consists of thick lines and contrasting colors on a cat with a tab of acid on its tongue. My painting is inspired by a 1977 experiment where a cat was administered LSD, a deeply troubling act that highlighted the ethical disregard often present in scientific research of that era. This experiment starkly contrasts the natural curiosity and wonder of observing a cat while on LSD with the distress and confusion the animal itself would have endured. Watching a cat while on LSD might evoke a sense of heightened perception and surreal connection, but to subject the animal to the drug strips away its agency, reducing it to a mere object of study. The boundary between observation and exploitation is lost.