The relationship between man and beast is often a symbiotic one – or, at least, it ought to be.
Instead, we live in a world where humans overpower the other creatures of the Earth with urbanisation, deforestation and straight-up disregard for their lives.
It’s something Korean artist Wookjae Maeng feels strongly about, inspiring him to create a series of unnerving ceramic sculptures resembling taxidermy animal heads you only see mounted on walls of hunters’ cabins – or horror movie sets.
Some of Maeng’s ceramic sculptures take the form of large animal heads (complete with angry yellow gleaming eyes) coated in trendy wallpaper patterns often found our own homes, while others feature human heads melded with smaller animal figures.
In combining human and animal elements, Maeng juxtaposes the lives of man and beast, highlighting the need for all creatures of the earth to live in harmony together, and strike a balance between urban and natural. That, he says, is the only way for us to thrive together.
Images sourced and text referenced from Beautiful Decay and Optically Addicted.
