The Animal That Therefore I Am by Jeffrey Gibson
Last Friday, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York revealed a new addition to its façade: a series of bronze sculptures by Jeffrey Gibson.
Since 2019, the Metropolitan Museum has commissioned sculptures occupying the niches on the front of the museum facing Fifth Avenue. Since 2024, the luxury motor company Genesis, a subsidiary of Hyundai, has been the sponsor of these commissions. Between September 2024 and June 2025, those spaces were occupied by a sculpture series called Long Tail Halo by the Korean sculptor Lee Bul. However, those works have been replaced by a new series, The Animal That Therefore I Am by the indigenous American artist Jeffrey Gibson. While Gibson has made use of many artistic media, including painting and performance, indigeneity features prominently in his work. The artist is of Cherokee descent and is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Specifically, according to a museum press release, Gibson’s work “critiques the reductive ways Indigenous culture has been historically flattened and misappropriated.”
Each of the four sculptures is around ten feet tall, each in the form of a different animal. There’s a hawk, a squirrel, a coyote, and a deer. The animals are all shown standing on two legs, dressed in cloth and beads, using patterns and colors that evoke the artistic traditions of indigenous cultures. These elements are executed with great skill, despite it being Gibson’s first time working with bronze. Gibson initially created the works by carving pieces of driftwood, which he then scanned and used to make casts for the bronze. The name of the series, The Animal That Therefore I Am, is derived from Jacques Derrida’s book of the same title, which discusses the philosophy surrounding what distinguishes humans from other animals, as well as the ethics of humanity’s domination and killing of animals. Derrida was considered radical in Western philosophy for considering animals. However, as Gibson reminds us, indigenous cultures in North America and beyond have commonly given animality a greater degree of respect through various forms of animism and spiritualism.
In giving the animals elements of human material culture, what the artist calls “regalia”, Gibson’s sculptures comment on how animals have been forced to adapt their lives to comply with human encroachment on the environment. He distinguishes between regalia and mere clothing in that the former “is imbued with the ability to transform oneself — while you’re wearing it, you are a different being.” Animals’ need to adapt to humanity’s domination is further reinforced by the fact that all four animals are native to the New York area, including the Hudson Valley, where the artist now lives and works. Furthermore, the Metropolitan Museum’s location is incredibly appropriate for these works’ exhibition. The museum is located on Fifth Avenue, but is mainly situated in Central Park, the bulk of the museum building jutting into the green space. The museum is therefore located at the threshold between a world made of concrete and asphalt and one that, though man-made, is more akin to nature.
Gibson initially conceived of the project’s central theme over a decade ago while painting on elk hides. During a discussion on the sculptures, Gibson said that using the skins made him come face-to-face with the realities of using animals for our benefit. When painting on hides, “you come across scars. You come across hair follicles. You’re reminded that it’s an animal.” Unlike other forms of anthropomorphization, Gibson does not necessarily give his animals names and genders. Rather, he references the qualities of each animal, the lessons humanity has learned from them, and the many names that they go by in different indigenous languages. The hawk has the title they carry messages between light and dark spaces bia̱kak/dawodv/hawk, while the deer is called they teach us to be sensitive and to trust our instincts issi/awi/deer. The coyote has the name they are witty and transform themselves in order to guide us nashoba holba/wayaha/coyote, and lastly the squirrel is titled they plan and prepare for the future fvni/sa lo li/squirrel.
The Metropolitan Museum will exhibit Jeffrey Gibson’s The Animal That Therefore I Am on the museum façade through June 9, 2026.