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Poor Teddy is a reflection on the ways in which childhood playtime has changed in the contemporary era. Children are no longer interested in teddy bears and other tangible toys - the smartphone seems to have eclipsed all other toys as the ultimate pass-time for children, a knife to the heart for Teddy. Realized in its first iteration in 2014, Hovnanian presented Poor Teddy as an installation of a plush teddy bear, pinned to the wall by a knife staked through its heart. Around it, a circle of white mice congregates as if ready to consume it, a metaphor for the all-consuming nature of technology and the ways in which humans are being tested like lab rats.
As technology has continued to overwhelm our experiences, Hovnanian has similarly revisited her Poor Teddy series, reimagining the image of Teddy in metals and marbles such that they can be seen and experienced both as intimate objects and as larger-than-life bronze statues.
