Eva & Franco Mattes

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Half Cat (2020)

A sculpture based on a LOLcat meme, alternately called “Half Cat”, “Panorama Fail Cat” or “Sinko Peso”.

 

 

Eva & Franco Mattes, Half Cat

Installed at Fotomuseum Winterthur

 

 

 

 

 

In the original image a cat with two legs and no ears walks down a street, and since it’s earliest appearance in 2010 it has been used in a variety of memes.

 

 

Eva & Franco Mattes, Half Cat

 

 

At first it was assumed that the strangely truncated image was the result of an error, maybe a Google Street View glitch or a failed panorama shot, until users of online forums were able to track down the original image of the four-legged cat walking along a street in Ottawa, Canada.

 

 

Eva & Franco Mattes, Half Cat

 

 

The image was not in fact a glitch, but rather a man-made error, simulating a machine error, implying that an accidental technological failure would be more appealing than a skillful photoshop edit.