NAME
Adel Abdessemed
Taxidermia

‘Taxidermia’, 2010
Taxidermic animals, steel, wire
170 × 170 × 170 cm

This work is a cube made of taxidermic animals pressed together and bound with metal and wire, then burned, which gave the overall piece its darkened color. The snouts of foxes and boar, the horns of stags, the nose of a cow, and the paws, ears, and teeth of various mammals are visible on the scorched sides. The geometrical shape typical of Minimal art is apparent but its form has been subjected to the irregularity and heterogeneity of the animal carcasses. The sculpture thus becomes a site of condensed narratives (little tales of hunting, of aggression and flight, seem to emerge in places) and condensed time (in which nature’s recursive temporality of endless clashes between predators and prey coexists with an art-historical framework and its echoes not only of Minimal art but also of decorative animal statues in Mannerist gardens).

Angela Megoni