~ Curious Charlie ~

A Cabinets of Curiosities at Tasma Terrace @ Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Cabinets of curiosities (also known Wunderkammer) were encyclopedic collections of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe, yet to be defined. Modern terminology would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural history (sometimes faked)...

Wunderkammer looks like a strange word to me, and an exhibition with that name, well I have no idea what that's about. As it's close to the English word 'wonder' it looks German. In which 'wunderkammer' literally means German ‘wonder chamber’.

Me: Did you know there's a word for dead stuffed animals?
Le Beau: There's a word for everything, and in this case that word is taxidermy.

A couple Fridays ago we went to an exhibition of dead stuffed animals aka on taxidermy. The installations are meant to be thought-provoking and unnatural to encourage discussion on a broad range of issues including climate change, pollution, stewardship, hunting and animal-human relations.

These are some of the things on show, just a preview. There was hoodies or at least the hat part made of bunnies, so I found the event just a bit traumatic. They were little fluffy white bunnies, both with upright and floppy ears... Wore by dolls holding the pacemaker (fake heart) that used to be inside dead people (who weren't dead when they used them) who were cremated (because they died). How did he get them?

Birds & A Dino? I'm told it's a rat.

Here we have penguins fishing right at the top.

The inspiration for these installations is amazing, children's toys and random bits and pieces glued together and spray painted black (as in the pictures above) or white to create a backdrop.

I think this is an eel. It would be a challenge to work with bones so fragile.

Antelopes, with their heads taken by humans/hunters as trophies.

A more common trophy.

Baby polar bear? I have never seen one before, I thought it would be bigger?

There's a rumour that the tower is haunted...

For the past five years Rod has been exploring sculpture and art installation concentrating on conservation and human-animal themes. The Wunderkammer exhibition takes this further by drawing on his interest in taxidermy to create installations which challenge human perceptions of the natural world.

All of the animals are ethically sourced and range from a polar bear to a zebra and from insects to penguins. Meaning they weren't killed just because they looked pretty, and were selected for the project.

Do you have dead stuffed animals at home? Perhaps a deer head grandpa hunted on a trip? I don't think people collect these things anymore, it was more of an old world thing, unless you're in a hunting area mid-west. Le beau believes that his grandpa who was Swiss-German would have had some.

A bit morbid but got me thinking, what do you want to do with your body when you're dead? Le beau recommends cremation instead of rotting in the ground. And just wait till they start burying people upright, that's scary! Being a huge history buff, and a fan of Ancient Egypt, I considered mummification, but is that a bit creepy? I mean they take your brains out your nose. But then again you're preserved forever!

Artist Rod McRae brings his Wunderkammer exhibition to the

Victorian Tasma Terrace from 5 February to 30 April.

Tickets are $10. For more info click here.

Archives

July 2014
August 2014
September 2014
October 2014
November 2014
December 2014
January 2015
February 2015
March 2015
April 2015
May 2015
June 2015
July 2015
August 2015
September 2015
October 2015
November 2015
December 2015
January 2016
February 2016
March 2016
April 2016
May 2016
June 2016
July 2016
August 2016
September 2016
October 2016
November 2016
December 2016
January 2017
February 2017
March 2017
April 2017
May 2017
June 2017
July 2017
August 2017
September 2017
October 2017
November 2017
December 2017
January 2018
February 2018
April 2018
May 2018
June 2018
July 2018
August 2018
September 2018
November 2018
December 2018
January 2019
February 2019
March 2019
April 2019
May 2019
June 2019
July 2019
August 2019
September 2019
November 2019
December 2019
January 2020
February 2020
March 2020
April 2020
November 2020
December 2020
January 2021
May 2021

Thanks to...

Original Base Design
Base Editor - Erma97
Basecoder - detonatedlove
Original Header Design teacakehouse
Coding Assistance (IT)
Kitty_meow & Bala Kumaran

Disclaimer

Any resemblance to real or fictitious names, identities, characters, persons, whether living or dead, settings, situations, or other information, is purely coincidental and unintentional.

Bloglovin'