Tag Archives: art

Unfairly Maligned Taxidermy

Well, not all of it – some of it is legitimately awful taxidermy. But some of the entries at Crappy Taxidermy are clearly trying to do something other than simply mount the remains of animals in order to preserve a lifelike appearance.


Did you go there yet? OK, admittedly, a lot of it is just awful. If you’re patient, though, you’ll see some weirdly wonderful things in there.

Seven Deadly Sins

Galleries 1988 puts on a large show called “Crazy 4 Cult,” an annual show in which artists pay tribute to cult classics.

This piece will be featured:

It’s a modern adaptation of Heironymus Bosch’s 1485 painting, “The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things,” also in wheel form, but look closely at Dan Lydersen’s depictions (OK, go to the G 1988 blog entry about it or to the page at Dan Lydersen’s website to get large enough images to see detail).

The original is 30 inches across and will be shown at G 1988 LA through August 8. Learn about the other artists and what works and prints are available at the Crazy 4 Cult website.

I’m feeling particularly intrigued by this piece right now, because when I’m not at my job, I’m home watching movies (or worse, TV shows on DVD) and wallowing in one of the classics: Sloth. So I have deliberated over this work of Lydersen’s and decided it is time for another month of Thing-a-Day, here in August. As a nod to my slothful ways, though, I’m not actually producing anything until tomorrow.

Wish me luck. I’ll need it.

Fluid

Claire Morgan makes astonishing assemblies of taxidermied animals and other materials, meticulously placed with nylon strands. She uses many kinds of animals and insects, as well as fruit and leaves. I don’t have any idea what to make of any of it. I can’t decide whether I love it or would never want it in any space I occupy, even briefly (I or the work). Lots more photos of many installations over the last seven years at her website.

“We’re All Gonna Die”

“100 meters of existence”

Part of a stream of photographs, stitched together, depicting 178 people that walked past the same spot over the course of 20 days. At the site, a ribbon invites you to scroll through time, sometimes making eye contact, mostly not.

I am pretty sure the appeal of this series has nothing to do with my recently having a birthday!

Amy Bennett

Beautiful quasiphotorealistic paintings. They slightly recall and frankly transcend the tilt-shift photography trend of a couple of years ago. Some are small – on the scale of snapshots or even wallet-size photos – and others are two feet on a side and more. A clean, detailed yet oddly featureless calm in these paintings is electrified by small (almost faceless) figures. Surreality is intensified by partial cutaway views in some paintings.

coincidence - amy bennett - oil on panel

Beautiful stuff. Go look at the whole portfolio.

Bri Hermanson

Several years ago, I found a portfolio of work by Bri Hermanson and fell in love with her viscerally effective work. Political, social, literary, epic, she’s used her woodcut-like technique and wonderful sense of muted, blocky color to tackle the World Trade Center bombing, the phenomenon of McDonald’s, and, recently a very quirky Tarot deck. (Go look right now. I’ll wait.) I just happened across this tonight, in an old blog entry of hers:

Eustace Tilley, by Bri Hermanson

She made it for the New Yorker cover contest earlier this year, and I, well, I wish I had seen it then.

Henry VIII’s Wives

“A group of aged volunteers pose in their everyday outfits and in their daily environment (the vicinity of the Home) to re-enact the scenes from well-known newspaper photographs taken from history books and encyclopaedias. The images in question depict ‘historical moments’ that took place in their lifetime.”

More at their website.