Narrative Artist Statement
Caged
Is zoo life any kind of meaningful life that wild animals should endure? There was a time when I was very young and my parents took me to the zoo. I remember wondering how the animals felt about being there in those cages. They did not seem particularly happy and did not appear to act as they might act in the wild. I created this poster to evoke those same emotions from my audience. I really feel that all of humankind should be aware of all that is involved when it comes to the confinement of wild animals. Zoos have many arguments for the confinement of wild animals, however wild animals should exist for their own purposes. The poster expresses a critical view of zoo life using four pieces of written content with brief and simple messages about the hardships of animals exposed to a life confined in a zoo. In addition, the poster has a poem that is simple, short and inspired from a newspaper article from the Los Angeles Times online newspaper. It is written from the perspective of the animal that is caged in a zoo. The poster also has three drawings that show wild animals which are confined and seem unhappy. The drawings are drawn in soft pastels like colors, creating a soft cartoon look to help catch the attention of the audience. The goal of the poster is to provoke thoughts on the captivity of animals and get people to ponder the idea of animal rights and treatment. The definition of a zoo explains: zoos are a place where animals are caged for public exhibit along with the quote from Alice Walker will expectedly ignite my audience’s thoughts on animal confinement. Once the poster draws the audience in, the article form the The Los Angeles Times then has a powerful statement about the purposeless life the animals are living, but by California law, does not meet abuse criteria. Zoos justify their purpose in many ways, but the
