Skin and Bones: Taxidermy as Fine Art

This past weekend was the opening reception for the third biennial taxidermy exhibition at La Luz De Jesus in Los Angeles.  The exhibition included works from Jessica Joslin, Simone Smith, Divya Anantharaman, Emily Binard, Sarina Brewer, Kristin Bunyard, Kevin Clarke, Catherine Coan, Cindy Cronk, Bruce Eichelberger, Ai Honda, Katie Innamorato, Jeremy Johnson, Lauren Kane, Jeffrey R. Kibbe, Dr. Paul Koudounaris, Brian Poor, Emi Slade, Nick Veasey, VegA, and  Brooke Weston.

The works in this exhibition span a variety of approaches.  Jessica Joslin’s constructions bring new personality to animal skulls by adorning them with glass eyes and vintage metal.  The adornments evoke jewelry, ears, wings, etc., and give each skull a new identity.  The titles of the pieces are these new characters’ names:  “Butch”, “Star”, “Annabel”.  The use of vintage metal, as with Chicago’s own Jason Brammer, draws inevitable associations with Steampunk, the subcultural aesthetic William Gibson brilliantly described as, “when Goths discovered brown.”  And it is admittedly difficult not to read Butch, with his underbite and spiked helmet, as one of the goblin guards from Labyrinth.  But these superficial associations, besides being inevitably annoying to the artist, are a distraction from the unique characters that are all Joslin’s own.

 

The word “charming” comes up a lot in attempting to describe the works throughout the exhibition.  It is a near universal that, like Joslin, artists working with taxidermy will create characters with an endearing personality.  Some, like Emi Slade, create threatening monsters that evoke the good old days of physical special effects creature features like Jaws or Critters.  But others go in the opposite direction, creating little animal friends with whom you’d be delighted to spend an afternoon.  Simone Smith’s “Dinner Underground” is a perfect example.  Taxidermied moles enjoy a meal of snails in their subterranean parlour.  From the upturned bottles and tilting glasses, it’s hard not to imagine that the little fellows have enjoyed a few glasses.  Sometimes art is about big ideas.  Other times, it’s as simple and funny as enjoying the idea of a couple of moles getting shitfaced.