Introduction:

​

FABLE(S) is a dialogue—or rather a trilogue—between a monkey and two people who do not share a common language.

The monkey and the two people are mutually unfamiliar to one another, producing two overlapping layers of linguistic (im)possibility: one dialogue between two humans, and another between humans and a monkey.

Visually, the work evokes a contemporary reimagining of El Greco’s Una Fábula, while simultaneously recalling Utsubo Zaru (The Monkey’s Quiver) from Kyōgen, a form of traditional Japanese comic theatre.

Rather than directly interpreting these references, FABLE(S) deliberately adopts their surface characteristics, using them to construct a new fable that emerges from the collision of two culturally and historically distinct narratives.