Sunday, August 17, 2008
Animal Model Kits
(Warning: dead animals and animal parts herein. I wrote before that this project might offend some people, and I'm convinced.)I'm mainly done with this Animal Model Kits project. I've been booked a whole lot between when I started it a couple months ago and when I finished it last week.
They're specimens, if you're wondering. I got them from an online supply house, so you could get yourself a set, if you're inclined.
I worked with a stylist, Suzanne Bryan, who was great. I could see I had reached my limit in arranging the parts, so it was time to call in a professional. Suzanne did a great job styling the animal parts, and I liked collaborating some.
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It was nice to have someone else around while I was disassembling these animals. It was pretty creepy, not only cutting them open, but just having them around. But cutting them open is worse.
While prepping them, I returned to ideas I come back to periodically, about death and life and our disconnection to each. Cutting through muscle and bone, though bloodless, made me realize how infrequently I come into contact with such things, when everything is killed, cleaned, prepared cooked, sealed, packaged and delivered to me, all nice and tidy.
I thought this might have a lot to do with entitlement, not entirely, no, but partly. If I had to kill and clean a chicken, I might have a much better sense of its sacrifice, and therefore feel more grateful while I ate it. And really, that applies to food, clothes, everything. We're so disconnected from the origin of our goods it's easy to float off into some Star Trek wonderland where things just...appear.
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The project grew out of a story I read about David Lynch and his Christmas presents one year. If I remember correctly, he obtained animals like chickens and rats, disassembled, labelled, and froze them, then packaged them up, with instructions for reassembly. I thought that was pretty freaky.
Visually, I wanted to try this top-down technique; I'd seen Hunter Freeman and Dwight Eschlimann use it well.
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I'm kinda thinking about Joel Peter-Witkin, but then...naaaaaah. I think his stuff is way more disturbing...
# posted by Rob Prideaux @ 7:46 PM 
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Do you know this guy - Jan Svankmajer? He's a film director, but he also does this:
http://www.spamula.net/blog/2003/10/vankmajer.html
http://www.spamula.net/blog/2003/10/vankmajer.html
I hadn't heard of him before, but that's some cool stuff up there. I've seen some fanciful taxidermy, there and elsewhere.
It's kind of compelling, the way he combines various animal parts to make mythical-looking creatures that seem familiar and strange at the same time.
It's kind of compelling, the way he combines various animal parts to make mythical-looking creatures that seem familiar and strange at the same time.
Hey, this is Stephanie Prideaux. :)
It's so strange how things in life intersect. Particularly how I can be thinking about someone or something that seems to have just popped into my mind, then a few days later someone else brings that seemingly random or forgotten subject up. Just the other day I was thinking about you; that I would like to write you and find out how you are doing. Then, this morning (though it must have been there longer) your wedding invitation appeared on my refrigerator. What a crazy coincidence! It led me to your website again and eventually to your blog.
To get to my point (other than saying hello) I love your commentary on our disconnection to our food sources because it is so true. This is something I am very aware of and I do try to fix this problem a little. I've been volunteering for a while now at Centennial Farm at the OC Fairgrounds. I lead tours for classes of children around the farm teaching them about agriculture, animals, their immense relevance to our daily lives, and their tremendous importance in other (especially poorer) parts of the world. So far, most of these kids have no idea where things come from or that there is a lot of someone else's work involved. I am trying to plant little seeds of concern in their minds for when they have opportunities to think about this more as they age. In fact, I've also changed my major in school to do work like Heifer International's.
Thanks for listening. Keep up the amazing photography work. Congratulations on getting married soon. I love you a lot and wish you the best.
It's so strange how things in life intersect. Particularly how I can be thinking about someone or something that seems to have just popped into my mind, then a few days later someone else brings that seemingly random or forgotten subject up. Just the other day I was thinking about you; that I would like to write you and find out how you are doing. Then, this morning (though it must have been there longer) your wedding invitation appeared on my refrigerator. What a crazy coincidence! It led me to your website again and eventually to your blog.
To get to my point (other than saying hello) I love your commentary on our disconnection to our food sources because it is so true. This is something I am very aware of and I do try to fix this problem a little. I've been volunteering for a while now at Centennial Farm at the OC Fairgrounds. I lead tours for classes of children around the farm teaching them about agriculture, animals, their immense relevance to our daily lives, and their tremendous importance in other (especially poorer) parts of the world. So far, most of these kids have no idea where things come from or that there is a lot of someone else's work involved. I am trying to plant little seeds of concern in their minds for when they have opportunities to think about this more as they age. In fact, I've also changed my major in school to do work like Heifer International's.
Thanks for listening. Keep up the amazing photography work. Congratulations on getting married soon. I love you a lot and wish you the best.
Aw yeah, it's great that you stopped by, and I'm really happy to hear your getting so much out of your work.
I'm dismayed but not surprised to hear your story of kids not knowing where things come from.
Anyways, shoot me an email - I don't have your email address.
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I'm dismayed but not surprised to hear your story of kids not knowing where things come from.
Anyways, shoot me an email - I don't have your email address.
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