Making Money Off The Bags Of Animals

Making Money off the Bags of Animals (2025) continues the themes I first explored in Lex Humana, which is about of humanity’s enduring urge to dominate the natural world. Each piece is cast in porcelain plaster from the back of the very same alligator used in Lex Humana, then gilded in gold leaf — a material historically associated with wealth, power, and luxury.

The title carries a deliberate double meaning. On one level, it refers to animal hides and the luxury handbags still crafted from them. On the other, it’s bluntly literal: I took a direct cast from the back of the Lex Humana alligator, and by selling these pieces, I am — in my own way — attempting to “make money off the back” of the animal.

This self-referential twist mirrors the very logic at play in the luxury industry, where crocodilian skins, sourced from farms, paradoxically contribute to the preservation of the species they exploit. This uneasy transaction blurs the boundaries between preservation and commodification. Series of 15. Porcelain plaster + gold leaf finish. 21 x 21cm.