Taxidermy - To Art or Not To Art?!

I am lucky enough to be part of the manifold of artists at St Art Gallery, so I went along with them to the KunstRAI in Amsterdam. Beside having pieces in the exhibition myself and that of K-Guy, Bart Jansen brought along his cat Orvillecopter, Proctocopter (a flying rat) and his Trash-O-Mat. There was a lot of attention for the cat Orville and photographers were falling over each other to get a good shot of the now infamous cat. When Orvillcopter went global, the public opinion divides with animal rights militia going mental...Pros & Cons, is this art or animal cruelty?

Dutch artist Bart Jansen loved his pet cat so much that he decided to turn it into a piece of artwork. Jansen could not stand to think of life without his beloved cat and that is why he turned his cat, Orville into artwork and turned into a helicopter called the Orvillecopter.

While I was sitting in the 'chill' area taking it all in, I really don't understand what all the fuss was about, as just two stands further along Jaski Art Gallery had a stand full of stuffed dead animals on display, by two artists Les Deux Garçon. Why wasn't there a big fuss??? Here some pictures I took at the KunstRAI:

Rester sur la touche 

I love their work. The sculptures are absurd but also moving, using materials found at antique shops and auctions. Not to shy away from the theatrical, they present their deer, lambs, pigs, birds and other animals often as Siamese twins or multiple births. The found attributes like toy pistols, notes and perfume bottles symbolises fear, doom, fate and mortality.

 Sur les ailes de l'illusion

 

L'Epreuve

Saltimbanque