Tag Archives: taxidermy

Jane Howarth’s beautiful bird guts and a rant about lousy artist statements

Posted on 27 September 2011 by

I recently came across this arresting image of a taxidermied seagull with luxurious pearl entrails spilling out of its split carcass. It was repinned on a certain nameless photo sharing site with no credit or links to the artist (a … Continue reading →

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The weird and wonderful world of Walter Potter

Posted on 7 August 2011 by

While on the subject of macabre taxidermy I would be amiss without at least a cursory mention of the ridiculously interesting Walter Potter (1835-1918), king of bizarre anthropomorphic delights. A favourite among contemporary connoisseurs of the curious, Potter was a … Continue reading →

Posted in Curiosities, Museums | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Birds in little sweaters: Annette Messager’s “Le Repos des Pensionnaires”

Posted on 1 August 2011 by

I adore this 1971-72 work by Annette Messager, Les Repos des Pensionnaires (roughly translated to “Boarders at Rest”). In this work Messager clothed dozens of taxidermied sparrows in tiny knitted garments, then carefully laid them out in natural-history-museum-style display cabinets. … Continue reading →

Posted in Contemporary Art, Curiosities, Museums | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A strange humanoid creature: Charles Waterton’s ‘Nondescript’

Posted on 11 July 2011 by

I think that probably every person, at some point in their lives, gets the urge to make their own ridiculously interesting creature out of the shaved a** of a monkey. (Right?) Well this grim little fellow is the product of … Continue reading →

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