Photo by: Emily Gomez

The idea of preserving and presenting dead animals is slightly odd and vastly fascinating. Lifelike forms are often presented in surreal environments that attempt to place the animal in a natural setting which are merely feeble attempts to imitate vibrancy and ideas. Sterile museum environments serve to compound the feeling that the taxidermy is grossly displaced. Although I find taxidermy in all sorts of settings there is always something not quite right about observing these creatures perfectly motionless. I often ponder the fact that these animals must be dead in order to be preserved in memory this way. The individuality in each of the specimens can only be understood because the life that gave it the character has vanished. When I examine delicate texture and form in these imitations of life I experience knowing someone else’s secret. I feel privy to private knowledge about these animals at their complete expense. Beautiful yet simultaneously disturbing, many aspects of taxidermy collections exemplify my intrigue of strange forms and allow me to be a voyeur into the animals private existence. I study the images I make over and over to remember the unreal feeling I had when experiencing these dead animals shamelessly exhibited for all to inspect and discover the “real” way these animals appear.

Technically my work takes on many forms to communicate my experiences with the idea of preserving memory. I print the taxidermy animals using the archival metal platinum in order to extend the metaphor of preservation. These negatives are enlarged digitally then printed on vellum so that the finest details of the animals can be studied. The use of vellum is also a deliberate choice because of the animal properties associated with this type of paper. Combining all of these factors allow my ideas to be projected on many levels that form an encompassing language with which I can communicate.