Dean Hoy

London based artist and photographer Dean Hoy's latest project is a collection of soft sculptures, titled Bears Who Care. 

 "Bears Who Care (BWC) is built on love and human negligence, as a physical and honest symbol of repair (in the literal and metaphorical sense). Soft toys observe and conserve years of love, yet are unfortunately often thrown out (Toy Story 2 style). Via repair BWC immortalises disregarded soft toys as artefacts of unconditional love.

I began the project when researching conservation reliance, For context. In 1902 Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a captured bear (upon a bear hunting trip). This was drawn by cartoonists leading to the marketing of the traditional American teddy bear, inverting the ideologies of bears in America at the time. The inversion of the bear's narrative and equally the inversion of the bear (by myself) exemplifies the complex relationship between humans and animals as we navigate through the Anthropocene. The soft sculptures are the animals we left behind and the ‘repairing’ process is BWC acknowledging mistakes and offering hope in our navigation. In a soft toy’s truest form they’re a transferrable offering of care that, via the words of Dr. Maya Angelou, “try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”

These new pieces visualise my internal dialogue about juxtaposing harmony. In this case how chaos and calmness unite, hence their nicknames. They have strong ‘Grace’ & ‘Frankie’ energy."