Last night, Damien Hirst's The Golden Calf sold for $18.6 MILLION dollars.
The financial world is unraveling and the US economy is in ruins, so maybe $18.6 million dollars for a calf submerged in formaldehyde is a sound investment.
Glass Menagerie
Yesterday, Karly wrote some rockin' posts on animal furniture for Elle Decor, and on animal plates for our DC. When faced with the daunting task of following in her fantastic footsteps, I realized the only thing left to blog about was... animals. Real ones. I'm not even talking about the ubiquitous deer heads seen on every single wall in the country, but I am talking about real... animals. Sort of. Before anyone goes all PETA on me, let me just say (as my thin and poorly executed defense) that I am from northeast Texas, y'all, and taxidermy is part of my cultural heritage. People, just be glad I didn't adopt other quirks indigenous to that region, like flashing my Neocon credentials, or drinking moonshine. Which is actually kind of good. Not the neocon part. Besides, you know you want this:
Dutch design duo Idiots (their term, not mine) are the latest incarnation in a long line of taxidermy artists, and when I say "artists" I do not mean the nefarious creators of jackelopes and other such curiosities designed to finagle dollars from your pocket at the local fairground.
I mean, for example, the incomparable Annette Messager, hero to all artists of the collector persuasion, myself included:
Did I mention that I'm weird? Messager's insanity laden early 90's exhibition of taxidermy wearing stuffed animal heads is like the goth girl version of Mike Kelley's stuffed animals placed in compromising situations. (He did the cover for Sonic Youth's Dirty if you're old enough to remember it.)
More recently, Kelly McCallum has been tearing up the London scene with her intricate juxtapositions of brilliant metalwork and memento mori:
Who knew birds had clockwork hearts?
Back to the Idiots, whose conviction I find utterly convincing:
I have this empty spot in the corner that I just know this would fill brilliantly. The lime green embroidered "skirt" and black ruffled petticoats are so amazing that it becomes hard to look at this level of craft and feel grossed out.
Some more flights of fancy:
And one more charmingly feathered friend:
There's such an enormous amount of respect that goes into each creation that I feel like these little sculptures have been loved into life. Every detail, from the animals themselves to the beautifully blown glass, is perfect.
And then there's this:
What's the matter? Never seen a crystal encrusted decapitated deer before? Neither have I, friends, neither have I.
Wait, this is ostensibly an interior design blog, right? Well, then, design a room around this:
What would you do with this 17 foot long shark Damien Hirst eloquently titled, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living? I'm afraid it's unavailable for anything but fantasy since Charles Saatchi already owns it, but we could ask, What Would Saatchi Do? WWSD? If your heart aches for a formaldehyde encased shark of your very own, you could always attend today's auction at Sotheby's of what may be the entirety of Hirst's personal collection, and it's sure to include some creepy crawlies. Don't forget to bring your $500 million dollars with you.