11 x 17 poster print
The Leaopard's Defeat
Skye Vang, 2025
11x17”, fine art smooth matte
Print sale proceeds will go to the Autonomous Yurt Union.
This work was created as part of Art Prints 4 Mutual Aid, a project with support provided by the Visual Arts Fund, administered by Midway Contemporary Art with generous funding from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York. Four artists were chosen to participate, and each artist created new work with guidance and mentorship centered around trans-national solidarity and international mutual aid movements. Print sales proceeds will go to mutual aid organizations of each artist's choosing.
Skye Vang artist statement:
The Leopard’s Defeat is about solidarity—what it means, what it asks of us, and what stands in the way. It started with a song based on the tweet: “‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.” It was funny, and the more I thought about it, the more questions I had. Why do people choose things that hurt them?
The leopard in this print is not just a symbol for one individual or political party, it’s colonialism, white supremacy, war and capitalism. It’s the same leopard that told us to fight in wars having nothing to do with us, then left us to suffer when they were over. It’s the same leopard, or systems, that exploits our most vulnerable people and destroys our planet today, while demanding that we continue to labor for low wages and stay obedient to the nation.
This print was inspired by bold, anti-war prints and also symbols from my culture. The mountain border is a familiar symbol from Hmong story cloths, meant to protect and remind me where I come from. The steps in the print represent both what we’ve already overcome and the work ahead: building a home that’s not just for ourselves, but for everyone who has ended up here on Turtle Island. The four step symbols put together create the symbol for a house.
This print is also a call to my own community. Our stories connect with the people who’ve also been displaced and harmed more than any billionaire. We cannot thrive alone, in fact, connection is necessary. Solidarity with others is essential, and it must go beyond just our own experience.
When I had read this quote about The Return of the King: “Worth thinking about how long Tolkien goes on in Return of the King about despair being a weapon, and presenting defeat as a forgone conclusion being a deliberate and effective tactic,” I knew I wanted an image of the leopard’s defeat. If they truly wanted us to believe things couldn’t change, they wouldn’t need so much propaganda. The Leopard’s Defeat is my hope, my visual manifestation of when we win, that we are many. The steps of how we get there are up to us and it’s a reminder that we can fight—tawm tsam—together—ua ke.
