Stuffed with Sawdust

A while ago I read a Victorian book with advice on owning pet monkeys. At the end, the author suggests stuffing its body after it dies. So macabre! I was thinking about the ownership of exotic pets, and how these poor creatures suffer for humans’ desire to possess nature in such a way.

It’s interesting that a pet can blur the boundaries of what constitutes family, yet stuffing it might deprive it of the “dignity” of a proper burial, which we would never deny a human family member for instance.

Sawdust is traditionally used to stuff toys too, which further suggests the blurring of boundaries: are pets animals, humans or “things”?

I made this animation of my hands stuffing sawdust into the capuchin puppet, trying to explore the concept of preserving life, possessing an animal even after death… this also ties well into puppetry - puppets seem to exist on the boundary between the living and the inanimate object. They can also “die” and come back to life.