Seconds Before I See in the Dark: The Deportation and Imprisonment of Pankun and James

Seconds Before I See in the Dark: The Deportation and Imprisonment of Pankun and James was part of the group exhibition Just Act Natural, curated by Lisa Visser and presented at Studio 22, in Kingston, Ontario in June 2010. The exhibition took place alongside the interdisciplinary graduate conference "Animals and Animality Across the Humanities and Social Sciences" at Queen's University.

This project was intended to mimic the look of an educational display which you might see in a shopping mall or a trade show. It was based on the true story of Pankun and James, a bulldog and chimpanzee performing duo who came to prominence in segments on the Japanese TV show "Genius! Shimura Zoo" in the early-to-mid 2000s. Their segments were abruptly cancelled in Spring 2008, at which point the pair was taken to a zoo in Kumamoto Prefecture called Aso Cuddly Dominion, where they were forced to perform shows for visitors several times a day. Pankun attacked a member of staff in 2012 and was forced to retire from performing for safety reasons, while James died at the age of 12 in March 2016.

The project included several display panels detailing their imprisonment and deportation, free copies of a book which compiled youtube comments related to the topic, a video of their "final episode", and a small library of books related to imprisonment, punishment, animal liberation, and studies of the great apes.

A somewhat-low-quality PDF of "Pankun is a Superstar How Could They Do It?" (the book available at the exhibition) can be downloaded here.