About HOARD: HOARD is a twin-bed sized, hand sewn blanket made from stuffed toy cats. It was inspired by a New Smyrna news story from 2008 entitled, Woman, 84, Used Cats for Warmth in Filthy Home. The elderly woman reportedly let her 66 cats, “pile up on her” at night because she had no heat in her small mobile home.
The woman’s house also sheltered 15 turkeys, 20 ducks, 13 gerbils and a lone dog. The woman’s daughter was arrested on Thanksgiving Day and charged with neglect of the elderly, while the cats, gerbils and dog were taken to the Humane Society. Mr. McCool, a neighbor of the elderly woman, adopted the fowl.
Along with the blanket, visitors will find a looped audio piece of cats meowing, a cat food can chandelier hanging from the ceiling, a kitty litter box with edible litter and scat and a looped video of cats on the outside of the moving van.
Animal hoarding is attributed to many factors such as delusional disorder, attachment disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. More contemporary scientific research suggests that people with cat obsessions may have brains that harbor toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that is proven to affect fear and sex receptors in the brains of rats. After toxo infection, via cat scat consumption, a rat’s hard-wired aversion towards the smell of cat urine is replaced with sexual attraction to it, leading the rat in the direction of the smell of urine, and ultimately it’s death.
This piece was constructed to address some of the interesting issues surrounding animal hoarding. The bright colors bring camp to an otherwise dark and noxious scene, while the edible litter and scat invite you to take a risk and nibble on some toxoplasmosis.
About the Artist
Tess Bonacci received a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Central Florida in 2005, and then spent the next two years working in Zambia, Africa. She currently lives in Winter Park with her creative and peculiar manfriend, David. Tess enjoys potty-humor, politics-lite, films with bleak endings and funny, funny people. She has no cats.
About TheDailyCity.com Mobile Art Show
An official gallery on the Downtown Arts Disctrict's Third Thursday Gallery Crawl, TheDailyCity.com Mobile Art Show is an art show in a moving van produced monthly by Mark Baratelli for the Orlando culture blog The Daily City. MSN.com named it one of America's 10 Wackiest Businesses on Wheels, the New York City culture blog Culturebot called it "very cool" and Orlando Weekly recognized it as an Editor's Pick in their 2010 "Best of Orlando" list. Its been seen at Enzian Theater, The Milk District, United Arts and Barnes & Noble and has featured poster designers Lure Design, sketch artist Thomas Thorspecken, puppeteer Jack Fields and theatre lighting designer Aron Altmark, to name a few. For more information: Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, Video, Producer