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Ship of Fools

From Thomas Choi’s essay on Hib Sabin’s 2016 body of work:

“Though whimsical perhaps, nothing in these presentations is unintentional; every color, color contrast, spatial arrangement, body carriage, proportion was sketched out in advance and carved as envisioned. Take, for example, the two ravens in the Ship of Fools in this exhibit. One is white trying to be black, the other is black masquerading as white, creating the farce of making black white and white black and thinking they, the ravens, can get away with it.

The Ship of Fools may be a spoof but it is also an embrace of the very fools who nevertheless create a community; a rather dysfunctional community, but a community all the same. The captain is remote and bound to himself. The fawning and squabbling ravens try to project a color different from who they are, the owl is fixed on looking at himself instead of looking out for the ship, the parrot’s spyglass is trained on the wrong spot, the elegant thrasher steersman is more ornamental than functional with its tiny but decorative oar. He’s blindfolded to himself and to others. Despite these narcissistic tendencies, on a collective scale, the ship stays afloat and meanders on. We are left to ponder whether those on the ship will manage to enjoy a pleasant voyage or be doomed to enact their own No Exit.”