Stuff It

I think I have made my appreciation of feathers quite plain by now. Capes of feathers, skirts of feathers, headdresses of feathers, cuffs of feathers. Feathers, feathers, feathers.

When I clocked eyes on the head adornments at Lanvin I was smitten*. Cascading plumes of feathers in my hair is what I need.

When I recieved and email from Reid about her work RP/ENCORE I was intrigued. Reid is a taxidermist and wants to challenge our perceptions of how we wear animals and view the animals normally considered vermin.

She taxidermys rodents and pigeons and uses them as centre pieces for jewellery. I think mice, pigeons and rats are beautiful creatures yet they carry disease and can be dangerous. There's this strange natural contradiction surrounding such animals and I like that Reid has explored that idea:

"RP/ENCORE challenges our attitudes towards fur, leather and waste.  In a world where leather is worn with out question by most, and replaced by un-biodegradable plastics by the rest, it is ironic that the image of an animal preserved using taxidermy is still enough to cause widespread outrage and fist banging. It is for this reason I taxidermy the prolific, consequential vermin result of London’s excess.  A member of the UK's Guild of Taxidermists, I use both traditional and alternative methods of taxidermy to preserve and embellish creatures that are widely thought disgusting and unnecessary. When they become sculptural headpieces, necklaces and cuff-links, the specimens cease to be waste and become objects to behold. RP/ENCORE makes use of the city’s leftovers."

"Being a vegetarian, all animals used in my work are either roadkill, caught by my cat, from a local City Farm, or "snake food" (bought frozen from a pet shop, with the remainders fed to my cat Panasonic).  I use sterling silver in conjunction with Swarovski Crystal Elements, semi-precious stones (garnets etc) and precious stones (rubies)."

When I looked at her photos my initial response was raw and confused. I freely admit I'm not quite ready to have a real mouse hanging around my neck. However, I was drawn to her winged pieces. I can't say why I find this easier to deal with than the mouse for example, but I just can.

Whatever I feel about the mice on necklaces, I truly admire her bravery in trying to change people's ideas of both taxidermy and the animals we call vermin. Make of it what you will.

*that goes out to you Sister Wolf!

Queen Michelle

Comments

[Sal]

Vaguely creepy ... but certainly intriguing.

[Hannah]

As a vegan, I find her reasoning pretty sound. That is, besides the snake food part. I LOVE the wing headpieces.

[natty]

Reminds me a little of Chrlie Le Mindu's dead mosue balaclava. Interesting... but I so wouldnt go there.

Funnily enough I saw a pair of dismembered white wings in a Canal yesterday whilst taking a summers walk - they looked both beautiful and tragic floating there and your post today is making me think of them even more.

[natty]

Ignore my terrible spelling - I meant mouse!

[dust]

Dead pigeon is a pure poetry.

[JW]

this is right up my alley! i use a lot of second-hand dead animals in my work too and i have considered going to taxidermy school. great post Queen Michelle!

[Alicia]

That is brave. I can appreciate the idea behind her collection. It is a bit creepy, but I think I could do a winged headband.

Maybe.

[KD]

I actually love the headband and I really admire her for doing it. My dad keeps frozen birds that have banged into our windows in a freezer in our garage (or he used to before the house was renovated and we had to throw them away) so I don't find it that creepy at all.

[Gen]

The wings are rather cool. I've always liked feathers in the hair, though my boyfriend is really creeped out by them.

I should add I HATE the photos from the Lanvin show, I saw them in today's Elle, and half the models look like they've staggered out of a concentration camp. I write that as someone who usually gets riled about 'thin-ist' comments on models' sizes... but they really do look dreadful, and the scraped back hair doesn't help.

[Sister Wolf]

Oh jesus, is this whole post going out to me?! I hate this woman AND her ridiculous mission statement. My rant on the hipster celebration of taxidermy is still on the back-burner, but it's coming.

[Queen Michelle]

There is a "hipster celebration of taxidermy"?? Who knew!
Where I come from it's the domain of old eccentrics and ladies who refuse to accept that their little fluffikins is actually dead.

[JW]

i, for one, would really like to hear + participate in this rant about the 'hipster celebration of taxidermy'.

also what do you find ridiculous about this explanation of this person's work? the logic seems pretty sound to me.

and i personally do not buy the concept of vegans being upset by other animals who need to eat meat. not all creatures can survive on a vegan diet!

[Tamara]

I'm not really into feathers but these are amazing!

[Sister Wolf]

Queen Michelle, the hipsters ruin everything. Their current lust (or faux lust) for taxidermy is everywhere, in the US at least. Meg White is an amateur taxidermist! The trendiest boutiques are decorated with dead chickens wearing hats and necklaces. Everyone suddenly needs a dead animal head on their wall. Courtney Love and her dead mouse brooch...

[JW]

you know, i don't really buy into the whole "hipsters ruin everything" complaint. in fact i would rather express that anger or distaste with cool hunters, the rabid desperation of the masses to be "cool" and the disposable, temporal trend side of the fashion industry.

trends occur for many different reasons - often it is natural, and i believe, a result of collective consciousness, or similar waves of thought and their subsequent trickle-down. but often it is the result of people wanting to cash in on something popular. certainly with media and communication being as fast as it is, the proliferation of anything even vaguely interesting or popular occurs on a much faster and more obvious level than ever before. i too get annoyed when something i love is suddenly plastered everywhere, in copycat form.

perhaps i am one of these hipsters you dread so. but my lust for old furs and leathers and taxidermy is not faux, nor is it an attempt at being trendy. i am a designer and performer and also a collector of things old and forgotten. my lust for - or rather, my love and adoration for - taxidermy and fur comes from a desire to salvage the beauty of these creatures and present them to world, to hold them up for all to see. even something as minute as a mink's paw is a beautiful and perfect design, rife with the mysteries of nature and deserves our attention.

but it is not the hipsters who ruin the things you love, or even the things you don't love but that are proliferated everywhere. it is the desperate need of others to grasp a piece of the cool caché. hipsters are only hip because others admire them as such. shops like Urban Outfitters allow anyone with money and zero imagination to dress in a copied creative and stylish manner. the internet allows people with no taste or style to find out about the interesting artists, bands and parties going on.

hipsters or 'hep cats' or the cool kids or whatever you want to call them always existed, and they always were tastemakers. thy just used to be harder to find and more difficult to copy.