Inspecting the toy animal as a cultural and political object, ‘Showpony’ considers humanity’s disconnection with animals and other life forms. Through the growth of industrialisation, urbanisation and advancing techno-capitalism, humanity asserts dominance over the modern landscape, compartmentalising animals in line with our convenience.

In his 1980 essay ‘Why Look At Animals?’, John Berger notes how animals, once regarded as sacred, spiritual beings, are now reduced to a tamed commodity, domesticated into the home and intensively farmed onto the plate. Focusing on childhood experience where these understandings are first formed, this work considers how toys and children’s mass media falsely centre humans in the natural world.