A Grisly Grizzly and Other Bare Bears by Deborah Simon

Artist Deborah Simon's series of Flayed Bear Sculptures combine taxidermy, science and embroidery. Her three unusual bear sculptures have faux fur partially pulled back to reveal the anatomy underneath.

Stuffed Livestock Furnishings From Italy's Armin Blasbichler Studio.

Given my posts on tattooed pigs and pigskins received so many controversial reactions, I can only imagine how these tables from Armin Blasbichler Studio, which combine furniture design with taxidermy, are going to go over.

Orson I and Orson II are part of a limited series of tables which feature stuffed livestock incorporated into the design by the Italian multidisciplinary studio.

"ORSON, I'm Home” Orson I, 2010

“ORSON, I'm Home” I is a coffee table which has a stuffed sow as the base on which a laminated glass and cotton cloth tabletop sit:



dimensions: L 250cm, W 120cm, H 74cm, 210kg


"ORSON, I'm Home” Orson II, 2011

“ORSON, I'm Home” II is a console table whose legs are those of a stuffed deer and whose top is multi-layered plywood covered with real deerskin:


dimensions: L 141cm, W 44cm, H 76cm, 25kg

Armin Blasbichler Studio is a multidisciplinary practice based in Brixen/Bressanone, Italy specialised in cross-linking the fields of architecture, design and visual arts. The studio is committed to developing innovative projects that are built on critical research, transgression and the experience of chance both physically and conceptually.

The World's Largest Crochet Sculpture & Crochetdermy by Shauna Richardson.

above: Shauna Richardson stands by her Lionheart project, the world's largest crochet sculpture

Artist Shauna Richardson turns game hunters into knit wits with her mounted animal heads and animal statues made of hand crocheted knits. Taking the old tradition of taxidermy and giving it a politically correct and artful spin, she creates life-sized and oversized sculptures that blend craft, realism and collecting.

I will first share with you her Crochetdermy mounted heads and animal sculptures, followed by her Lionheart project, featuring the world's largest crochet sculpture.

Crochetdermy





















The Lionheart Project

In 2009 Shauna won ‘Artists taking the lead’ part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad with the ‘Lionheart Project’.



For two years she has been creating the largest single-handed crochet sculpture in the world, three giant lions.






The finished piece will be housed in this mobile glass taxidermy style truck case and tour throughout 2012:

The building of the glass case:



Tour Dates
Shauna Richardson’s ‘Lionheart Project’ has announced its UK tour, which will see three giant crocheted lions travelling the country in a 16 metre long illuminated glass case (shown above). Starting on 1 May 2012 at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, the three giant lions will tour the East Midlands before arriving at the Natural History Museum in London in time for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Harking back to a travelling menagerie show, the lions will also visit venues in Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northampton and Nottingham, calling in at events such as SO Festival and Twycross Zoo. The lions will reach out to an estimated audience of over half a million visitors across all venues, with countless more sightings when they take to the road.
Learn more about the Lionheart Project.

About the artist:



Shauna Richardson’s background is in conceptual art. The unique body of work she terms ‘Crochetdermy’ evolved out of the exploration of the theory that ‘Anything can be art’. She uses crochet to sculpt realistic life-size animals – uncanny taxidermy-like forms. Crochetdermy combines themes such as objects, collecting, craft and realism and experiments with accessibility and audience. Richardson has received much critical acclaim. Her work is receiving worldwide media coverage and selling into collections across the globe.

Despite the enormity of the Olympic Lionheart project in the last six months Shauna has managed to fit in a very unofficial portrait of Prince Harry commissioned by the Guardian Weekend Magazine, and winning ‘Best Sculpture’ and the ‘Overall Gold Award’ at Art of Giving held at the Saatchi Gallery.

She will is presently exhibiting the life-size brown bear (shown below) in ‘The Power of Making’ at the V&A – Sept 2011 – Jan 2012.




images courtesy of the artist. Additional lionheart project images courtesy of Inspire LeicesterShire

Crochetdermy pieces are created to commission. Selected works on her site are available for purchase.

Shauna Richardson

Mounted Life. Stunning Taxidermy Photography By Danielle van Ark.

The Mounted Life is a series of photographs by Royal Academy of Arts graduate Danielle van Ark. She visited the storage and archives of museums around the world and found animals in surroundings and environments so far from their natural habitats she was struck by the inherent contrast and photographed them.

The series makes the most of the juxtaposition of wildlife and industrial imagery. The images are disturbing, funny, haunting, confrontational and even touching in their composition and subject matter.

























above images courtesy of Nowness, Danielle van Ark and Foam Editions

You can purchase some of the above prints at Foam Editions

Danielle van Ark graduated in 2005 from the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Since then she has been living and working in New York and the Netherlands. The artist now wields backstage access to 33 museums across Europe and North America, and she aims to package the entire collection into a book.

See more of her work here.

Contact Info:
danielle@daniellevanark.com
NL +31 (0)6 28 25 45 78
US +1 917 374 2714
Studio:
Nieuw en Meer
Oude Haagseweg 131 achter
1066 BV Amsterdam