What is the Jungle Monster
By [Olivia Hamza | Notwhatnot]
October, 29 2025
As I prepare to release the Jungle Monster Master Works & Prestige Editions, I realize that collector’s editions exist as reproductions, as well as continuations of a creative gesture. They carry forward elements of the original work through tasteful and meaningful choices that, as with hand-embellished works, act as a short hand for an original. They add another dimension through which we can experience the piece. However, this isn’t just about the object. Material, technique, and finish possess value in their own right, but the significance of an artwork embodies the whole of its circumstance: On one hand, standing witness to a creation process that is slow, and intent. On the other, the meaning behind the image, and the compounding value of the labor behind its creation.
The painting Jungle Monster (oil on canvas, 42 x 68 inches) began in 2020 and matured gradually over the following five years. Its evolution is complementary to my own as an artist. My experience in the film and video game industries has made me acutely aware of how visual storytelling shapes collective perceptions of identity, power, and diversity. This understanding shook my sense of purpose at work, and led to the inception of this piece.
Jungle Monster explores how long-standing colonial tropes and Orientalist aesthetics have framed the “other” in ways that are both reductive and enduring. We assume these tropes to be telling of this “Other”, but they are in fact a reflection of our own blindsightedness. They are harmful to us just as much as the other, as they reduce our humanities to shallow unidimensional concepts of ourselves
The idea here is that as artists contributing to bigger works, we have a responsibility to know what message we are conveying. Often as we look for work, we are focused on the bottom line “I want to pay my bills, and treat my partner to a fancy night out for their birthday”. However, it’s important to know that artists, especially in the commercial sphere, have an extended responsibility. We shape public opinion, and skew feelings and perceptions. We hate to admit it, but mass media productions like blockbuster films, and AAA games are propaganda. I will delve deeply into this topic in a follow up post.
This is how I became interested in the mechanics behind these images; how they uphold stereotypes, how they reinforce power structures, and how they subtly, or overtly, shape our collective subconscious. The Jungle Monster was the catharsis for these realities which I confronted daily at work, and for which I was met with great resistance. The propaganda aspect of our commercial work was the biggest of taboos. Unease and sincere moral conflict ensued and birthed the Jungle Monster series, which roots the body of work in an Orientalist Fantasy setting, which is the basis for our current fantasy entertainment. In this series I ask: What happens when we reimagine these tropes by honoring differences? Can we review these concepts, moving away from the colonial gaze? Who is the other? Who am I without the other? But mostly; Who am I without my opinion of the other?
The plan for this series is to find a way to redefine “the other” who often stands as the antagonists in our entertainment, in a way that does not show differences as negatively relating to a set of specific real-life cultures. Because this association subtly convinces us that those cultures are somehow actual manifestations of the enemies in our entertainment.
The process of creating Jungle Monster included extensive research: drawing from texts such as Edward Said’s Orientalism, Sternberg Press’s Art Writing in Crisis, and Erik Olin Wright’s Envisioning Real Utopias. These books shaped my understanding of character design, and entertainment design as a political act, one with social responsibility embedded at its core.
There was so much to learn, and so much to unlearn. It began as a technical mise a niveau, where my applied skills were the focus, and became a philosophical rabbit hole. This personal growth endeavor was so big that I underwent a complete overhaul of how I approach the concept of work, and that of living in society. This project taught me about strength, responsibility, discerning right from wrong. It’s also taught me to stand my ground, and to know when to walk away.
The painting itself is vibrant and dense, brimming with symbolic detail and philosophical concepts. It speaks the language of fantasy, but in a dialect that refuses the easy clichés. It is both a critique and celebration of the genre.
In the jungle monster painting you have a main character. This person is in a position of power. Communicating power is the main element of this image. I wanted to reuse the tropes of the fantasy genre which originate from the Orientalist movement, and modify the power dynamic that would be typical of such an image. When I work, I consider the viewer an integral part of the artwork. Consequently, I positioned the monster at the viewer’s height, and the rider above the viewer. This height placement is a typical visual communication trick. Anything that towers above us, feels domineering.
I also reused visuals that are typical of colonial artwork, in this instance the horses reminiscent of napoleon paintings as a war commander. However in my image, the horses are unsettled, their feet not touching the ground, suggesting upheaval; implying the colonial standard is not as grounded or solid as it once was perceived to be. The composition is also subject to a lot of movement. Elements are placed to create the feeling of chaos, movement, turning; these choices suggest that change, a turning of the tides. In this image what was once a solid colonial hierarchy is now more fluid and won't discriminate on arbitrary systems.
Then the final element in this image is the monster. As terrifying as this monster seems, it's based on the body structure of a ruminant; a cow. Its teeth are flat, not sharp. It’s slow moving, it has been tamed. The monster is a metaphor for how sometimes, the things we fear the most, are actually harmless. This is a message I’ve embedded in the painting to soothe everyone’s fear pertaining to the changes the image suggests. I promise revisiting your beliefs, as I have started doing with the initiation of the project, isn't as scary as it sounds. We grow from it, we learn from it, and it's infinitely more freeing than we anticipate. It gives you back the power to define life the way you see it, for yourself, without all that baggage handed down through generations that causes conflict in your current day to day.
Jungle Monster marks the beginning of a series that reoriented my understanding of artistic agency. It confronted me with the recognition that artists, like all individuals, wield substantial power: the power to frame discourse, to question narratives, to seed change. That power need not be exercised through confrontation; it can manifest through intention, persistence, and care.
Ultimately, this work stands as both critique and proposition: a reflection on the images we inherit, and an invitation to imagine those yet to come.
