Displaced Ecologies

The exotic pet trade has been a paradox; the love for these creatures leads to a vast number dying within it.  Melton reflects on the afterlife of animals, questioning the boundary between life and death. This sculpture captures at once a delicate beauty within its natural, sweeping biological form, as well as its inherent fragility within a consumerist and global construct. Its intricate scales are highlighted in contrast  with the manmade plastic packing materials that surround it that reinforce the manner in which it died; as part of the accepted waste of the pet trade.