I use copycat to be the theme of this work to respond to our fast-paced age of information in which our easy access to information warrants more caution. Quick typing of a few words in the search box could lead to our enjoying the fruits of others’ work. The keys ctrl+c and ctrl+v become a shortcut just at the tip of our fingers. But without proper citation and altering others’ works may raise more complex issues, such as copyright and intellectual property rights. 

My main visual strategy is the collage and montage of found cats as varied versions of imitation. I have also used other object-icons for their associated social meanings – poppies, prison, printer, scissors, glue and so on to build my visual grammar of “copy and paste,” and the consequences of becoming a copycat. The collage and montage method I use is therefore also pointing to the action of cut-and-paste.

Editor’s notes: This montage sequence draws from various sources for the gathering of raw material for the artist’s construction the final individual collage episodes. The artist provides the following reference list as original image sources for her raw material:

Sound sources: