January 03, 2005
The Current Taxidermy Scene
This New York Times article on the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists is worth a read.
The three founding members of the association recently had a show at Minneapolis’s Creative Electric gallery. It's an impressive collection, and I like the humor the Minnesotans bring to their mountings. Scott Bilbus specializes in scenes of unnatural carnage -- a man-eating beaver, a crab killing a catfish -- and the effect is suitably disconcerting. Robert Maybury’s plush monsters evoke a weird cuteness reminiscent of Rather Good's sponge monkeys. Sarina Brewer’s work is the most effective. Her ferocious looking fejee mermaid is a nice riff on an old saw, and her spectacularly realized “Goth Griffin” is a marvel of wing and cat-flesh.
I was disappointed, however, that there was no mention in the article of Tia Resleure's fine work at A Case of Curiosities. Resleure is working independent of the Minnesota association, but she is clearly picking over the same carcass. In contrast to the Minnesotan’s enthusiasm and press-savvy, Reshleure is a master of understatement, as evinced in the spare wit of her Mallard on Circus Ball, and her Fortune Telling Chicken. In her work, the simplest of props bring these creatures to life – as a hat humanizes an orangutan. Her Kitten Princess of Winter is both tragic and regal. Even more impressive, her Birmingham Roller Diva -- a pigeon dressed in an evening gown and cradling a mouse skeleton -- is a glamorous and terrible vision. The Minnesotans excell at creating ironic taxidermy, but Resleure's mountings are, to my eye, more impressive. Her articulations eschew the easy laugh and leave the viewer with the bracing sense that someday we all will find ourselves in this grotesque cabinet... with freaky marble eyes.
