Lin May Saeed passed away in 2023 at the age of 50, having devoted her life and work to bringing animal liberation to the forefront. Working across sculpture, reliefs, drawings and paintings, she was particularly drawn to styrofoam as a material. Saeed’s politics were inseparable from her artistic practice. She paved the way for a reflection on otherness and empathy, engaging with animals not as symbols or metaphors but as beings in their own right. Though animals were central to her work, she managed to evade stereotypical representations as her conceptual starting point was never about representation. At the heart of Saeed’s work lies a pressing question: How can humans continue to exist after their self-imposed separation from the animal world? This division carries profound political and existential implications, often signifying deep-seated rejection of the ideas of “development” and “progress” that are part and parcel of the incessant capitalist growth agenda.

Saeed created a unique iconography of harmonious interspecies coexistence, where animals take on active roles and critique systems of (human) power. In The Liberation of Animals from their Cages, she envisions an animal uprising aided by liberators, while the bricolage Skyscraper interrogates the very fabric of capitalist society. Her work consistently examines how animals are depicted, subjugated and exploited, imagining utopian landscapes where humans and non-humans work together toward liberation. Saeed rejected traditional sculptural materials like bronze or marble, and largely embraced styrofoam for its environmental ambiguity – an artificial, petroleum-based material that should not exist in the natural world. Rather than concealing it beneath layers of plaster or resin, she left it exposed, confronting its synthetic origins. This choice could be seen as subversive: using a material emblematic of environmental degradation to craft visions of liberation and coexistence. Styrofoam signified a material empowerment for Saeed, allowing her to create independently, without the need for additional hands or tools. At the same time, the material became a metaphor for human fallibility and our indelible impact on the planet.