Taxidermy: A few things to keep in mind...

While researching into the topic of taxidermy I must keep in mind the topic of animals seen through the human gaze and how we have and like to seperate ourselves from them. What does taxidermy do to animals? Does it show us the similarities between them and humans, e.g. anatomy etc such as the specimens at the Hunterian Museum or does it seperate us from them by turning them into a decorative work of art; a historical artifact that is there to admire? The latter point ties into the fact that we do not use dead stuffed humans as decorative pieces, we do not see the beauty in the dead of our own species as it is too close to home, too morbid, yet some of us cherish the beauty in the dead animals... is it because usually in our everyday life we cannot get this close to admire wild animals without them running away or attacking us... or does it lie with our primal instinct of hunters; for example dear and moose heads and antlers on walls, a showcase of our hunting skills and talents - we were quicker and outwitted them, we are top of the foodchain - power... and taxidermy allows us to inflict this notion of primal power onto the guests to our house/ the community... it definitely evokes an innate reaction of awe even if our belief systems believe it is animal cruelty and are disgusted.

Personally when I see taxidermy I have a mixed emotion of awe in the beauty of nature and a feeling of morbidness. We question ourselves, is this right? And I think for me the answer lies in how the animal came to be in this position... was it murdered by the taxidermist or did it die naturally in its day to day life. Some artists get sent road kill etc to work with and I think that although it is morbid, it is amazing to create beautiful works of art out of them and if done well it really evokes a raw primal innate instinctive reaction in us.

But yes... don't get too distracted with the subject of taxidermy - more the question of how does taxidermy separate us from the animal? Or if not, how does it bring us closer to our evolutionary relatives?