Is Taxidermy ART?
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- The Field Museum has some of the best taxidermy in the world, much of which was created over a hundred years ago. It got me wondering: is taxidermy itself considered a form of art today? Who decides - and where does it fit in with our ideas of contemporary art? So... we asked some taxidermists!
These videos were filmed on location at the 2017 World Taxidermy Championships in Peoria, Illinois. See our other video from the WTC: • I waited 4+ years for ...
www.taxidermy....
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Producer, Writer, Creator, Host:
Emily Graslie
Producer, Camera:
Brandon Brungard
Producer, Editor, Camera:
Sheheryar Ahsan
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This episode is supported by:
The Field Museum in Chicago, IL
And filmed on location at the World Taxidermy Championships in Peoria, Illinois.
(www.fieldmuseum...)
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What do you think: is taxidermy a valid form of contemporary art? Why or why not?
sure. it's just sculpture with a different set of materials.
thebrainscoop it's a complicated mix of background, intent, and which communities you associate with most. Damien Hirst has a taxidermied shark that sold for $12 million, so heck yes the two worlds can and will collide. to be fair, though, Hirst is probably the exception and not the rule. like many contemporary artists, a lot of people are critical of his work, myself included, but he's a good mainstream example of how taxidermy is used in contemporary art
I used to think it was just weird. But ever since you, Emily, started teaching all of us Brain Scoop fans about what it is and why it is important, I have come to really appreciate it. The stories about the dioramas at the Field are really fascinating. When I visit I have a new found appreciation of them. If the Field is ever looking to improve those already wonderful dioramas, they could explain the history of them. I now view them as I would painting or sculpture.
that's not the correct question, the correct question in my opinion is what are the main differences between decorative art and contemporary post modern(or Post Post modern) art , I believe that taxidermy in the form at the world taxidermy championship is very much so decorative art, while there are works such as Damien Hirst's "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" which is squarely in the post modernist world
It's completely valid! Forgoing the very loose definition of what is art, taxidermy has so much to showcase in terms of care, patience, and attention to detail. Taxidermists spend years improving and refining their craft, that one man spent 30 years refining his practice on preserving parts of fish! Insane! Taxidermists paint eggs, style leaves, position figures, and sew (probably?) fur. All of these skills together help make a motionless scene appear alive - it's freaking sweet!
I'm vegan and wasn't much of a fan of taxidermy. But after seeing this video I realized I just didn't really know anything about it and the art form that it really is. I never thought of it as giving an animal a new life or capturing a moment in time. I didnt know you could taxidermy fish, that's cool. And I love that a woman said it's a mix of biology and art. I think it would be cool to go to a show similar to this. You men and women are very talented.
montia larson what does that have to do with being vegetarian or vegan?😂
@@laurangelina.w most vegans hate the ideas of killing animals or using animal products
When I was about 10 or so I used to have to go past this building that just had TAXIDERMIST on the window to get to my gymnastics centre, and I always wondered what was inside, so one day when my dad was taking me and we were early we just pulled up and obviously he knew what they did, but I didn't, and they were in the processing of taking off the pelt of a fox and it had me amazed! They guy explained everything and let us watch, showed us some finished pieces, the fake eyes they put in, and was just super nice about a 10 year old girl being interested in something most people werent. I never went back in, but it's always been a memory that introduced me to the other side of animals
I've only ever seen taxidermy as "gross" trophies the houses of friends or family that hunt - thank you so much for opening my eyes with this series! The works on exhibit at this even are incredible.
On a related note: I went to the Field Museum years ago when I was very young and was taken aback by the taxidermy displays there and it made me very sad because I didn't understand their purpose in the museum. I'm hoping to travel there again within the next few years and see the Field Museum with new eyes thanks to the Brain Scoop :)
Thanks for being such an inspiration, Emily!!
The kid that said he loved animals warmed my heart
As a seamstrice (aka a fiber artist) I appreciate the lady who said that it's an art form that can't be digitized! That's how I feel about my art.
im a hobby taxidermist and i started because i could not understand letting something so beautiful just rotting in the ground i mostly do road kill and any scavenger only wants the meat anyway i try to return the meat back to nature untreated with chemicals i feel this is a for of respect to the animal to make it look as life like as possible
Jean Myers, but it also reduces their meaning in life to be a part of the cycle of life, to simply be an object that a human changes so it can be judged.
But I don't know, I still think it is pretty cool.
Taxidermy is basically 3D still life.
Indeed, I'd like to see bowl of fruit bats. 🦄
what are the chances of an episode about hummingbirds? does the museum have a collection? any taxidermy examples? likely tough to make a good museum display given the viewing distance of the museum goer, but your proximity with video doesn't share this limitation. thanks Em, you're terrific.
I saw the title and went: "oooooohhhh this is going to be a really interesting one." And indeed it was. Would love to hear what Sarah from The Art Assignment has to say about taxidermy as art. A future collaboration, perhaps?
+
That's a great idea!
Joonas Puuppo YES PLEASE!!!
+
Yesss!
"A show like this is judged at the highest level"
**Cut to skunk junk**
:p hey but they were anatomically correct
''you have families they could be staunch vegans and anti-hunters and they will give rise to a taxidermist'' This quote made me cry, I got so touched. I am a 26 and have always hid my taxidermy and love for taxidermy as best as I can from my family in fear of being disowned. My Mom and dad are Vegans and anti-hunters and I share their believes in many ways. All my work comes from natrually decieses animals. But I can't bring myself to tell them. I know my mom would cry..
god im in love with that miniature horse mount,I wish there was more footage of it.
The grey mini is by Chantelle Walker (the sasquatch guy, Ken Walker's daughter). She has more photos on her facebook back Chantelles Creative Creatures - C3
HarlequinHare I'd actually love to hear him tell his Sasquatch story, because I feel he blurted it and brain scoop cut and was like moving on...
Cykablyat there's supposed to be a doco coming out soon called big fur about his taxidermy and Sasquatch interest! :) there's probably some articles online about it too. I've heard him talking about it personally and he's very passionate
I love how the wide variety of people who do taxidermy is. I would have expected it to be some one general "type of person" but it's super varied!
Where is Chuck Testa?
"I want to be a taxidermist forever," she is in the right place to make friends who can make it happen. haha
I think that might be... illegal.
I actually thought the fish ones were sculptures! I didn't expect people to actually preserve and mount fish skins. Mindblown.
RIGHT?! I still can't get over those. Here's an interesting article about Matthias Fahrni, the "Mozart of Fish Taxidermy" www.swissinfo.ch/eng/small-fish-wins-big-prize/6564470
At 4:47, Ken has a really good point. When I was just a small child, I used to hate taxidermy, I pretty much saw it as a work of evil against the dead animals that were involved... But now that I'm older, have learned more and gained more knowledge about taxidermy, I've become very fascinated and want to take it on as a hobby. I hope to take a taxidermy course soon to learn how to do taxidermy.
whoever thinks taxidermy isn't art can stuff it.
;)
two drums and a cymbal fall of a cliff...
Bravo!
That was a pretty fowl pun...
Steve Cheetah hey that pun cost me an arm and a leg.
They probably can't. Stuffing is hard (as a novice/amateur taxidermist, it's definitely the worst part for me...)
The fish looks amazing! The eyes look incredible. I read that he makes his own eyes that can take him weeks to complete.
Random unrelated note, Ken Walker at 0:56 is wearing a velociraptor shirt from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, and I have the same one!
Taxidermists are the closest thing we're going to get to necromancers.
That was so cool. Those animals look PRISTINE. I never thought I'd want to go see a taxidermy exhibition but now it looks really interesting. Definitely art.
I used to hate taxidermy, but ever since I started finding and collecting the bones and skulls of already dead animals, I've become more open minded about taxidermy and fascinated in it as well. I'd really like to try doing it one day, but only if it's fresh roadkill.
"This parrot is DEAD!"
No its not. It's resting.
It's just pining for the Fjords.
It has ceased to exist!
Glad to see another video coming out of the taxidermy show! Just the one that you made last time wasn't enough!
Wish I had known this was happening when I was in Illinois! So cool!
Melissa Hall same here I live 20min from Peoria
We just had our elderly and much loved cat put to sleep yesterday and it would've meant so much to me to be able to have her taxidermied. My partner thinks taxidermy is weird (as do most of my friends!) and I can't understand it at all - I think it's awesome & wish we had someone near us who did it!
vsauce Michel here. is taxidermy art? but what is art?
is this art? * *
>
~
probably not
andrew knorpp where are your fingers?
there are no dumb questions.
what? on the keyboard right now...
I really like this episode, I can relate 100% with the words spoken by Divya Anantharaman and a few others. As a kid I was fascinated with anything animals, that included taxidermy, and I too grew up in an urban area north of Chicago and LOVED the Field Museum, especially the birds. I credit it partly to developing a love for the outdoors, which until my early 20s didn't include hunting. However, I now view hunting as the pinnacle of outdoor experiences, it's not about the killing. It's about that connection to the land, obtaining food by myself, and the sights and sounds of the fields and forests. Because of my love for upland bird hunting, I support numerous conservation organizations and vote with wildlife and public lands in the forefront. This episode did a good job portraying the art in a positive light, I think many people see a taxidermist deer head, they see waist and the greed of man however that's not the case. The meat is almost always kept and the mounted specimen is the ultimate form of respect to the animal. Well done, The Brain Scoop!
Conveying life with death is such a interesting concept, and to see it executed reveals the true skill it takes to be a good taxidernist.
"What is art?
Are we art?
Is Art, art?"
-- Lisa Turtle.
A taxiadermist is as much of an artist as a shoemaker is.
Damn right!
Right, and i'm a fish.
love the passion from Emily and the taxidermists
SASQUATCH THO
What a range of characters! Love it! Keep up the awesome work.
I finally remembered to subscribe! Been meaning to for a while--your vids are great, better all the time! And yes, taxidermy is without a doubt an art. Keep it up and thanks for the quality and fun of your work.
good episode! Might be cool to ask people of various fields why they do / enjoy their fields.
Yes. It is a very beautiful form of art.
This was awesome! It'd be great to see more of the show!
Just a question for you brain scoopers out there,
I've noticed from observing birds like crows, seagulls and pigeons that occasionally some of them straddle around with their beaks wide open. This looks rather silly and seems to be too long to constitute a yawn and doesn't seem to serve any purpose for confiscating food from tourists (since that's just a matter of pecking at a precise moment). So I wonder, why do they do this and what purpose does it serve?
You're talking about hot chicks ;)
no really birds open their mouths and flutter their neck muscles to promote heat loss www.audubon.org/news/how-birds-keep-their-cool
hindos Gottenberg where do you live? I live in a fairly cool area and I've never seen that behaviour that I can think if?
So basically they are just panting like dogs?
Crocodiles will lie on the riverbank with their jaws wide open to keep cool , so I thought birds do the same after I've witnessed them doing it. Turns out I'm right =)
I just saw a bird doing this in my yard yesterday, but I couldn't find out why it was doing that. Thanks for the info.
@Albinojackrussel I live in Texas, but I still haven't seen this behavior very often. I only saw a bird open its mouth when the temperature reached around 95°F. I'm not sure if they do that up north.
Short answer: yes
Long answer: YEEESSSS??!!
After the Sasquatch taxidermy was brought up, and since The Brain Scoop did an episode on mythical creatures (which I found very intriguing and enjoyable), I would like to see another episode on animals that may or may not be mythical.
Wonderful interviews! You're consistently encouraging which causes people to glow when they speak with you. Sooo....when do you plan to enter the field of taxidermy? You're already accomplished at dissection, now it's just putting everything back together.
Heck yes! So excited for this video!
For those of you who want to learn more about taxidermy, take a look at Melissa Milgrom's "Still Life."
So interesting a lot of animals..Would love to visit.
That viper! Did he take artistic license or does that really exist? Because it doesn't look terrestrial.
schmittelt it looks like he dyed the bones to make them stand out.
Over the course of the year or so this channel has existed it has changed my mind on so many things for the better
We've been doin' this UA-cam thing for about 4.5 years now - I'm glad to see we've helped open you up to new experiences and ideas! #goals
It still has brains on it. Still my favourite youtube channel quote.
I love this show!!!
Holy shit, these characters.
Wow.
It's definitely art speaking of which I just came across the work of Kate Clark she is incredible!
I have wondered since your first video on Carl Akeley, why taxidermist are not acknowledged on dioramas in museums. Maybe they are and I just haven't noticed. Does the Field Museum list the name of the taxidermist on or near their respective pieces of art? It seems like something that should be done if it isn't already.
Depends on the display, but we typically list the taxidermist as well as the muralist on the dioramas. With interactive/touch-screen display tables we're able to include more information about the artists! The striped hyena diorama at the Field has a whole section about Akeley.
That's awesome. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. :)
i would say no in the sense of museums thats preservation but taxidermy for show and for home that is most certainly art
1:34 "because I like it"
That jerk with the Sasquatch...So few of those majestic animals in existence and he hunted it just to mount it. Does man's hubris know no bounds?!
(/s)
Great vid, Emily!
4:49 DEEP.
How do you learn to taxidermy if you don't live near hunters or anything? I'm really interested now.
Many people learn from volunteering with museums - but Divya for example lives in a big city but has found ways to sustainably source animals for her work: d-i-v-y-a.com/Sourcing-Sustainability
Love the brain scoop
From Indonesian mers to half man half reptile pieces. Even if you only consider consider a bunch of squirrels playing cards. Yup. That's art. A couple of months ago, at the Metropolitan Museum of art in NYC, there was a stuffed dear dressed with white Christmas Fairy lights. Ironic in that it was in part of a Buddhist display.
I don't know why, but I'm surprised to see so many young people, both male and female, in this international taxidermy competition. I had somehow thought of it as something that older men do.
I think it's definitely AN art, but hadn't thought about it as art before. But thinking about it, there is a creative piece so it's definitely at least somewhat art. Just kind of a weird medium.
The chicken from 2:50 looks like srtaight out of anime with transforming claws superpower
THE CHICKEN xD
I have to ask do museums buy some of these taxidermies for displays ? or pick up one because it shows a different color ect
Hell yeah it's art!
a science channel with a guy saying that he saw a sasquatch, Emily why?
It's art!
That is an easy question if you look in German law.
A Wolpertinger de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolpertinger
would be art but if a taxidermist builds up a recent animal it is not, because you
could use it for something and it is bound to some rules. The definition of Art
is in short something that has no purpose or rational function and is freely
made.
2:21: Isn't that Hagrid?
I got a big cuestion, how do you call the practice of preserving dead animals in formaldehyde? I hope you can help me with this!
That's called a wet specimen
necrolife2 Rangel Bencomo David Fernando foreplay haha (sorry)
necrolife2 Rangel Bencomo David Fernando yes as Gavin said, it's a wet specimen. I have a beautiful fox cub and deer fetus preserved in jars. I brought those ones but I have a dead mouse that I found, waiting in my freezer for me to learn how to preserve it myself. I love all forms of taxidermy as long as the animal died of natural causes.
thank very much to you all!!!
Visceral feeling? Not literally as I think you're supposed to remove the viscera first. Hey-o!
5:40 good on the kid of being honest. ^_^
holy shit Ken Walker looks very similar to Mark Hamil
To me he looks like he'd applied taxidermy techniques to his hairdo.
awesome
Check out the work of artists like Polly Morgan. It's great.
YESSSSSS
What is that term that Mark Breen-Klein said at 4:09?
Hmmm, Katie Innamorato, she looks familiar. Was she on another SciShow/Brainscoop episode?
@The guy who's seen a Sasquatch.... Please elaborate. 👀
The answer is YES.
Hahahaha! The guy at 1:44, I thought it was always an exaggeration, but now I see that some Yanks really do sound like that!
There are owls who live in the ground :O !
Falckon they're called pigeons
Something quite important was left out of this video: How did these animals die?
it is definitely arty and a hard skill
Yes.
I want to be a taxidermist, turns out they are few and far between. I need a teacher! I know I can learn off UA-cam but I would like to form good habits from my first project 🤷
I'm just waiting for someone to make a full-scale dogs playing poker Taxidermy installation...
OF COURSE IT IS
of course its art anything made to replicate a specific form is art . same as carving or anything it takes to replicate something is art .
ugh I wish I could learn how to do this but I don't have the space really. how would you even go about getting everything? guess I'll just stick to supporting those who can do this amazing art
Emily Altemus it's actually not too hard to get into. Taxidermy can be done using household items or some that are easy to obtain. For example borax works as an excellent preservative during the process. I'd recommend just looking up how to videos on youtube, that's what I did. As for an animal to work with, you could ask hunter friends for one or use fresh road kill, although that's illegal so don't get caught :)
Austin Galea thank you for the tips. I'll have to ask my brother for some help then lol. off to the interwebs
Birds are a good starting place, they need relatively few materials and a smaller setup compared to most mammals. Borax is used as a sort of preservative for them, instead of tanning (though there are bird tans available). Look up taxidermy.net for in depth tutorials :)
You can do it! I recently did my first mount in a dorm room without either of my roommates (with whom I share one small room) ever knowing. You can get all the materials needed for a small bird at CVS.
Im going to art school
Whoever thinks taxidermy isn't art NEEDS to see the movie "Dinner for Schmucks." 🐭🐭🐭
0:12 were those not yet born pupies that were taxidermed?
I love stuffed animals its just that got me off guard
I mean hunters dont hunt mothers with young offsprings
And the value is mainly in larg males with big horns teeth size etc something that shows sighn of virility like peacocks feathers
Not that i complain
If you want that ok have it
But youre not impresing anyone with it
Just like im not impressing anyone with my grammer
I feel like I've only ever seen bad taxidermy. I mean, until I saw these last two videos..
I absolutely love the art of taxidermy. It takes that, what they've all said, that one sliver of a moment in that animals life, and you freeze it forever. No fear in the animal. It's not in a cage. This is as close as us humans will ever get to these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat with natural behaviors. Keep going taxidermists. Someday we won't have these animals.
0:47 did he time travel from the 1970s???!
It's the best form of art! Much better than stupid modern art of people peeing and a big block of stone called art.
Wait wait wait.... go back and talk to that sasqatch guy!!!!! Really awesome video all together.
Ken Walker is an extremely talented taxidermist; his work has earned him a number of world titles. The Sasquatch may be one of his most memorable pieces; but he also created a giant panda out of two black bear skins for a world show a while back. proof.nationalgeographic.com/2014/09/23/exotic-extinct-and-on-display-robert-clarks-take-on-taxidermy/
There's a documentary called "Big Fur" about Ken and his Sasquatch - but I haven't been able to see it yet! www.bigfurmovie.com/home-1/
Awesome! Thanks for the link. It was great to hear about the brain scoop on No dumb questions!
There's also going to be a doco coming out 'Big Fur' about his taxidermy and his Sasquatch interest. I'm not sure about any release date though
quote from my hunter neighbor: "I hate it when people say hunters don't love animals, I definitely love animals. Deer are fucking delicious."