Museum of Taxidermy

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Lambda prints, Diasec (acrylic, aluminum frame), UV prints on metal plate |

Size variety

2009-2013

 

Human-being ascertains another creature thought our own blind spot. Which sometimes appear technical and reasonable, but eventually the empathy that can't prevent makes a  grotesque that legitimate to civilization, yet irrational to the real nature, like a taxidermy. In my hometown Tainan, there once an old taxidermy room, some taxidermy inside can trace back to Japanese-Occupied Period. Today, they were placed along with polystyrene mountain and cheap plastic decorations, become dilapidated, disfigured and ridiculous due to lacking proper maintenance. I took the portrait of them with a straight flashlight to make it rough and unnatural, almost like disturbing the animals in the wild. The camera kills these lively taxidermists second times. The pictures are trophies.

 

Taxidermy that originates from 18th is one of the most ancient three-dimensional methods. Today's 3D modeling procedure that goes thought "model-building to skin-mapping" has a strange conceptual and operational succeed from taxidermy's "foams-making to pelts-mounting.” In Chapter I, I framed pictures with 3D generated frame, integrated my opinions about the animal inside, the empathy through the process pretty mush the same as doing taxidermy. The pair of computer-generated frame and taxidermy's portrait annotated each other. Seemly thick and solid, yet actual light and thin image result is a compression of cruelty behind hunting and the indifference to display it.

 

Each kind of museum has its specific context. In here, I tried to cross an art museum and a nature museum. In Chapter II and Chapter III I shut deer and bird from several angles, makes an illusion on the amount. Painting-like pictures are gregarious animals living in the world behind the assembled frames. Some 3D render image texture with wax installed upon, referring to images of taxidermy inside the frame as taxidermy of images, or an eco-system of its own. 

 

In Chapter IV I take these objectify images back to original film location that no longer exist, take one last souvenir picture in birthplace.

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