The Fine Art Freak Show

Humans will always get a kick out of the macabre. Until recently, horror and torture remained in slasher movies and waxwork museums. Thanks to the huge rise in popularity of taxidermy (Hello, Polly Morgan!) as a bona fide fine art technique, museums and galleries are now displaying more gruesome works in their collections.

Last month artist Steve Powers created an installation at the Park Avenue Armory that involved animated robots enacting the US government interrogation practice of waterboarding. For $1 viewers could watch as a life-sized hooded figure pours water over the nose and mouth of a bound man, producing a grisly 15 seconds of convulsions. The installation was shown at New York's seaside amusement park Coney Island in August, where it was situated among rides, games and freak show attractions.

In July, a visitor decapitated a wax statue of Adolf Hitler minutes after it went on display for the first time at Madame Tussuad's. The 41-year old was protesting the museum's decision to include a statue of the former Nazi dictator in its new Berlin branch.

In September, Italian religious and political leaders were demanding that a sculpture of a crucified frog by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger be taken off display at the Museum of Modern Art in Bolzano. The work was described as a "public obscenity" by 10,000 locals who signed a petition for its removal.

In Milan, children out for a day of fun at a popular amusement park were treated to a mock execution. For only 1 euro, guests could flip a switch and witness a lifelike mannequin grimace and writhe around until large plumes of smoke emanated from its head. Following protests, the installation was taken off display after just one day.

So much of contemporary art relies on the grotesque that it can be very difficult to distinguish between side-show horror and the work of an artist. Thomas Sutcliffe wrote about this very theme in the Independent recently:

"As I walked around Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Museum, past the whale's foreskin and Chinese branding irons, I found myself thinking of stalwarts of British and international art. Of Damien Hirst, principally. They're very keen on mutants in this museum, and the exhibition opens with an assembly of stuffed animals that have more than the traditional complement of legs and heads - several of which call to mind Hirst's posed or bisected livestock.

"If that doesn't do the trick, what about the coffee table featuring iridescent tropical butterflies - another medium that has featured prominently in Hirst's oeuvre? And didn't Hirst cover a Mini with his trademark coloured dots?"

Sutcliffe goes on to compare an image of Jimi Hendrix, carefully painted on to a varnished cow pat, to the work of Chris Ofili. He spies a formal portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales made entirely from dryer lint, and immediately thinks of Brazilian artist Tonico Lemos Auad's sculptures made out of newly laid carpet fluff.

Some one emailed me about this website the other day. It's run by a Californian gentleman who creates "beautiful grotesques" in taxidermy. His big intention to is produce taxidermy with movements: "I would be happy with simple movements; a flutter of wings, the turn of a head. I would be thrilled to create these movements in small birds along with song".

Just in time for Hallowe'en.

Source: Charmaine Picard for The Art Newspaper