Ruan is a disturbing, hybrid being, whose origin we wonder at. Among the “ingredients” of an exemplar of Ruan, we discover with horror, the artist has used a premature fetus’s head, a rabbit, a cat, a rat, and even condoms for eyes.

　　The Chinese character used to catalog the creature is not legible. Xiao Yu formed it ex novo by using, on the one hand, the radical Jiu, that also has the independent meaning of “footless and limbless insect (or reptile),” as mentioned in old books. The homophone Jiu in classical Chinese refers to a legendary monster capable of distinguishing good men from evil, destroying the latter. But now that transgenic food has overwhelmed the market, and that the prospect of cloning human beings seems real, the game has grown more risky, especially because in serious question is the human ability to understand beyond the actual, physical difficulties, where our true good lies.

　　The appearance of Xiao Yu’s monsters is both repulsive and true-to-life, precisely because the individual parts forming them – wings, head, body – are familiar to us. A combination that creates dismay, and therefore warns us against the delusion of omnipotence that drives and at the same time blinds every creator of “monsters.”

Monica Dematt

[Wunderkammern (German) = Cabinets of Curiosities. Wunderkamern enjoyed popularity in European society in the 17th and 18th century, displaying quaint wonders of the natural world.]