This is an early collage from 2004/2005. With this print I was really trying to deconstruct the use in our culture of gender binaries. Animals are often used as metaphors for humans- often men are described as dogs and women as pussycats, so I wanted to use these animals as a part of this narrative. Both creatures in this collage are standing atop cakes in a nod to those plastic figurines that are often placed upon wedding cakes, and each has a tiara on their head. The dog wears a camera which I wanted to use to reference both the male gaze and also the use of the camera as a recorder of specific events at specific times. The cat is wearing a spiraling building partly to reference place and home but also to create a sense of an endless cycle in the way that housework can become a monotonous repetition of maintenance. Both characters bodies are composed of multiple elements which are meant to confuse and be in contradiction to the reading which may begin to be interpreted from just the heads of each character. Through creating bodies which have elements of masculine and feminine I hope to deconstruct the idea of hetero-normative gender binary. Formally inspired by Dada, this collage plays homage to the act of rejection of modern society, and in particular our society’s outdated standards of beauty, gender, and identity which continue to dominate the American landscape.