A sleek, lithe black cat nurses a seemingly mismatched litter of fluffy white kittens, with the painting’s title suggesting that the mother and assembled offspring are indeed biologically unrelated. However, with its bejeweled butthole, glowing green eyes and almost anthropomorphic, swollen breasts, the mother cuts a striking figure befitting of a competition-ready show cat. Our cat companions prove to be a continued source of inspiration for Epp, unsurprising perhaps given the artist’s internet engaged subject matter and the proliferation of cat content available online, including innumerable memes playing with the ease in which we can project our own worries or anxieties onto our feline friends.
Formally, Surrogate bears a striking resemblance to both the Capitoline Wolf, a readily replicated sculpture that sees a she-wolf suckling the mythical twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, and Louise Bourgeois’s arachnoid masterpiece Maman.