Today a colleague mentioned her middle-aged stay-at-home-mother’s newfound passion for the scraping, drying and styling of road-kill. I was reminded of the art again as I passed ‘EatonNott’ on my way home – a boutique studio/shop specialising in the creation of intricate death-fashion for the adornment of body and living space. In 2009, the practice was featured within the pages of interior design bible Wallpaper magazine and since then, the trend has filtered into the rented homes of the disillusioned graduate generation. These days, it seems you’re more likely to find a pair of mounted rams horns positioned above a lover’s bed than a reading lamp…
Taxidermy as interior decoration first became popular in the Victorian era and was famously celebrated in John Hancock’s series of stuffed, mounted birds displayed in London’s Great Exhibition of 1851. With an increasing divide between the ‘have’s and have nots’ in Britain today, perhaps a return to Dickensian reality is inspiring the aesthetics of our sub-cultures. Think steam-punks, Chap magazine subscribers, 2013’s Neo-Victorian catwalk invasion. We are harking back to dark times psychologically and perhaps that has lead to increased morbidity in our creative pursuits and expressions. Or perhaps it’s our perverse modern cultural denial of death that leads our curiosity towards the unknown and the feared.
For my money it’s the growing interest in object re-incarnation in the West; Re-use, repair, recycle; we are taking a more positive interest in natures dwindling resources, including the bloodied carcasses of those unfortunate creatures who never learned the green cross code. The materials are free, green and the practice could be viewed as a metaphorical restoration of beauty and respect, where the human need for speed and environmental dominance has created a mangled mess.
The magpie skull in my photo was a birthday gift from a friend who personally and painstakingly preserved and prepared it. Tonight I rescued my bird-skull from its dusty velvet perch and spray-painted it gold: from fragile to precious. Now I can vouch for the pleasure found in messing about with old bones.
By Rachel James