the bar on the 'daft taxidermy' thread has been raised significantly.......the new exhibition at Wakefield Museum on the 19th Century naturalist and explorer, Charles Waterton, (it is an excellent exhibition by the way..I'd really recommend it) includes some really wierd specimens. The exhibition is more about the evolving discourse of the natural sciences (that is a deliberate pun!), and Waterton's activities as a naturalist...but dotted around the exhibition, and also in further exhibition spaces upstairs in the museum, are examples of Waterton's extraordinary (satirical) taxidermy...including this one, called 'The Nondescript', representing some kind of 'new species' (you can read more about it here on this tax
idermy blog...which also has some more contenders for the 'daft taxidermy' thread...maybe we should leave that theme alone now, it's being done to death (pun x2)......anyway, another 'specimen' of taxidermy by Waterton, and also on display at Wakefield Museum, is this one rep
resenting, 'John Bull and the National Debt'.....very apt given the current financial climate...............Waterton's imagination is obviously locked into his own visual culture (I'm thinking of Punch here).....but even so, they are certainly worth a look.......as is the exhibition at Wakefield Museum.......Mark
(all pictures are by kind Courtesy of Wakefield Council)
You're right, it's time for daft taxidermy to go for short stay in Switzerland. But what a way to go.
ReplyDeleteThey do seem much closer in spirit to the type of contemporary conceptual taxidermy operating on the fine art spectrum, as opposed to natural history or scientific investigation. Although as you were suggesting, the do have a perverse sort of historical kudos.
One last link that's worth a look:
http://emilyvalentine.com.au/gallery.html
Daft taxidermy is dead. Long live daft taxidermy.
The emily valetine stuff is deliberately 'daft' too....reminds me of meret oppenheim's fur teacup and saucer?......
ReplyDeletem