The Cat's Head Flower

The first of the unconventional flowers was the Cat's Head Flower. Of course it isn't really a flower, unless I redefine a flower loosely as a head on a pole.

Now, I have alarmed you. You think I have taken a photograph of a cat's head on a pole. But you should not take me literally.

This was a piece of street art, or more specifically, esplanade art, and a carelessly executed example. Imagine a short pole at the edge of a paved esplanade, next to a wire fence and some straggly bushes through which there's a view of the sea. Now you are thinking of the sea. But back to the pole.

On the pole is a sign. It is a pictorial sign. It would, had it not been defaced, have been a picture of a walking man, above a bicycle. The man is walking in the opposite direction to that in which the bicycle is going. The meaning of the sign is, This path is for both walking and cycling. The subtext is, You need to watch out!

But, someone has glued a black and white paper drawing of the head of a cat over the head of the man, using lumpy white glue. The cat is a cartoon style cat. Not a famous cat, such as Top Cat or Garfield, but a mixture of several cartoon cats. It has heavy black eyebrows, tigerish stripes, round eyes and cheeks, the rakish air of a pirate king.

The orientation of the cat's head is such that the cat is looking slightly back over its shoulder. This gives the impression that, instead of purposefully walking, as the original man was doing, the cat is performing a suggestive sideways shimmy.

I bet you would like to see it.