Humanistic themes of mortality and decay, reproduction and birth, and femininity and abjection, are the inspirational forces behind the emotive art of Kiki Smith. One of the subjects to appear most frequently in her work is the cat - a simultaneous symbol of life and death, and the wild and domestic. Here, with Cat (1999), Smith renders the head of a housecat into a porcelain vessel, and turns it upside-down inviting us to fill its empty head with the trivial-perfect as a bird-feeder in a cage, to hold your business cards, or for display.