Hayley Myatt

On the Human Terrain

“On the Human Terrain” (2020-2021) is a life-sized self portrait of myself as a porcelain doll, covered in plaster army men. The doll is holding a stuffed animal cat, cut in half with a slinky connecting the two halves of the cat.

““On the Human Terrain” is created with paper pulp casts of my body, covered with  plaster army men emerging from ‘her skin’. The sculpture is finished and posed to look  like a porcelain doll slumped on the ground  in the corner. The doll is to represent the  battle which mental illness can wage on The ‘on the human terrain’. The piece is a self-portrait, it represents myself as a mentally adult, while referencing its childhood origins.In the lap of the doll sits an altered stuffed animal, cut in half and put back together with a slinky. The front of the cat is hiding behind the arm of the doll.  The cat is a subtle nod to the “crazy cat lady” stereotype of the mentally female. The hiding cat humorously embodies social anxiety and the significance pets have in soothing anxiety.”