THE DOCTOR

Laughter heals! OK!

This sculpture is certainly the most cruel in the series. Cats, as we know, eat mice and birds. And we cannot approve of practices from days gone by.

But here, the thing that’s particularly nasty is that Le Cat is a doctor, who is supposed to treat others, not eat them.

Looking at the statue, the spectator’s first thoughts are that the Cat-Doctor has good intentions (he has after all taken the Hippocratic Oath), and then they go round the statue and discover to their horror that the physician is holding a fork, all the better to eat the bird with – if it’s in good health of course. As one says nowadays: Eat well and local.

But morality wins out, when the spectator realises that the bird is made of bronze, and Le Cat will break all his teeth if he tries to bite into it.

Doctor, I think I’m in danger It’s all in your head

–  Philippe Geluck on stage –