Although Emily Carr is now considered a Canadian legend, the most
enduring image is that of her pushing a beat-up old pram into downtown
Victoria, loaded with dogs, cats, birds--and a monkey. Woo, a Javanese
macaque whom Carr adopted in 1923, has become inextricably linked with
Carr in the popular imagination. But more than that, in her short
lifetime Woo became equally connected to Carr's life and art.
Born to a strictly religious family, Carr was never able to reconcile
her wild and passionate nature with the stifling mores of the well-to-do
Victorian society in which she was raised. Over the years, she
increasingly turned to the company of animals to find the love and trust
missing from her human relationships. Across the world in an Indonesian
jungle lagoon, Woo (like Carr) was parted from her mother at a young
age. The tiny ape with a "greeny-brown" pelt and penetrating golden eyes
was then shipped across the world. When Carr spotted Woo in a pet store,
she recognized a kindred spirit and took her home.
Woo was many things to Carr--a surrogate daughter, a reflection of
herself, a piece of the wild inside her downtown Victoria boarding
house. Welcoming the mischievous Woo into her life, Carr also welcomed a
freedom that allowed a full blooming of artistic expression and gave
Canada and the world great art unlike any other before or since.
However, despite Carr's clear love for Woo, her chaotic life did not
always allow Carr to properly care for her. Tragically, after Carr was
hospitalized due to heart failure, she arranged for Woo to be sent to
the Stanley Park Zoo. Bereft of Carr, Woo died alone in her cage only a
year later.
Hayter-Menzies approaches his subject from a contemporary perspective on
bringing wild animals into captivity while remaining empathetic to the
unique relationship between artist and monkey.
