This gallery displays Rogue Taxidermy which is defined by its founders as "A genre of pop-surrealist art characterized by mixed media sculptures containing conventional taxidermy-related materials that are used in an unconventional manner". Sarina Brewer, Scott Bibus and Robert Marbury were the three artists who led the formal beginnings of the movement into what it is today.
Kate Clark
She Gets What She Wants
(2013)
zebra hide, foam, clay, rubber eyes, thread, pins
H 30 in x W 36 in x D 22 in
Hillard Art Museum, Lafayette, LA
Clark’s animal-human hybrid creatures take the skillful traditional practice of taxidermy while merging contemporary sculptural portraits to create pieces that feel like they could come to life at any moment. Much of her work evokes a primal or uncanny feeling, as the human faces looking back at you remind you of your connection and closeness to animals. It forces us to think about our identity and basic biological makeup, which has evolved and eventually brought us to this place and time to view this work. Each portrait is unique by hand sculpting the face from a live model, which is then covered by the existing animal’s facial hide to blend and pin the two beings together. Clark’s work aims to repurpose and reuse mounts that would otherwise go to waste, following the ideals of other Rogue Taxidermists.
Sarina Brewer
Felid Orthrus
Fantasy and Fiction series
(2006)
Brewer’s "Felid Orthrus" is in direct conversation with Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau’s “Grotesque Panel” as if one of his creatures jumped off the page and came to life. By combining multiple animal parts like bird wings, a snake tail, talons, horns, and a cats body she is able to make a fantastical creature that people during the Renaissance could only dream of seeing in real life. She took inspiration from mythology, folklore, and her own imagination to conjure up a variety of mismatched creatures that seemingly blend together. As one of the founding members of the movement, her work represents Rogue Taxidermy and all of its possibilities.
Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau
“Grotesque Panel”
(French, Paris 1510/12–1585 Annecy)
Sheet (trimmed): 10.5 cm × 6.7 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
In direct connection to Sarina Brewers piece, “Grotesques” would appear in details of Renaissance paintings, combining the body parts of animals. This playful fantasy illustration remained a dominant part of Italian culture, eventually sparking inspiration in Brewer's work. While the creatures she creates do not exist in real life, they do exist in the art historical cannon. These designs would be found in architecture and everyday life. The famous painter Giorgio Vasari described them as follows "Grotesques are a type of extremely licentious and absurd painting done by the ancients ... without any logic, so that a weight is attached to a thin thread which could not support it, a horse is given legs made of leaves, a man has crane's legs, with countless other impossible absurdities; and the bizarrer the painter's imagination, the higher he was rated". In this case, the weirder the better, making Rogue Taxidermy fit right in.
Cedric Laquieze
Fairies
(2020)
Mixed media, butterflies, beetles
4 in x 6 in
Laquieze’s Fairies takes multiple parts of insects to craft whimsical creatures that we recognize as fairies. Each sculpture is unique and is a part of his longest ongoing sculpture series. Since he was a child, he was always fascinated with the macro world. He loves to play with scale and bring his childhood fantasies to life. Laquieze makes fairies for people to order alongside his many other sculpture series that include natural and botanical forms. By re-arranging existing insect anatomy, he is able to craft completely new creatures that feel like they could fly out of a fantasy novel.
Walter Potter
Rabbits’ Village School
(circa 1888)
42 x 73 x 20 in
Potter was known for his dioramas that featured animals in human activities and clothing and was an example of “Victorian whimsy”. While his work is not always anatomically accurate, they tell a story and serve as one of the earliest examples of Rogue Taxidermy before it was coined.
Christopher Marley
Continuum II
(2022)
Coleoptera spp, Scutelleridae spp, Lepidoptera spp.
40 in. x 40 in.
© 2024 Christopher Marley | exquisitecreatures.org
Gunther von Hagens
“Plastinated Bull”
2010
5 ft x 7 ft
Plastination is a process created by Dr. Gunther von Hagens in 1977, in which a formalin solution is injected into the specimen to stop decomposition. Multiple steps are then taken after to preserve the animal or person to display the desired musculature or tissues for scientific study and display.
This project is for eductional use