Bats and Dublin

I've just come across Michael Stamp's beautiful pictures of ancient bats at the Natural History Museum, Dublin.  Check out all his images from the Irish wonder-world at 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_stamp/sets/72157624941481338/with/4984047910/

 

The Gentle Art of Museum Conservation

Check out the short film shot by Michael Mills that accompanied the Ravishing Beasts exhibit at the Museum of Vancouver in 2010-2011. This silent film documented the conservation work done to get the animals ready for exhibition and was presented next to some of the saddest animals from the collection- see photos below.

The Gentle Art of Museum Conservation from Michael Mills on Vimeo.

Taxidermy in North Korea

Ok.. now here's something out of the ordinary.  A reader sent me images of taxidermy from North Korea.  Karin Cerny is a journalist living in Vienna.  She mainly writes about the theatre, but with a passion for travel (and obviously a stomach for danger) she decided to visit as many "rogue states" as possible.  Below is her description of her experience -- from a taxidermy perspective -- and a series of very odd, very badly stuffed beasts.  Thanks Karin!

"About two years ago I decided to see as many 'Rogue States' as possible. I didn't want to read only in newspapers about them; I wanted to see them with my one eyes. I was in Belarus in 2009, and last year in October I went to Northkorea (DPRK). As you can't travel alone there I booked my journey online. I was in a group of 12 people I didn't know before – I was the only women.  It seems North Korea is a 'Mans World.'"

"You see a lot of how the country wants to present itself to the world: Huge momuments of Kim Il-Sung, the first dictator of the country (statues that look like Jeff Koons made them), nice children who perform arts for the tourists, and the mass gymnastic-games called Arirang, where thousands of people perform the propaganda-history of their country (in fact, that's quite impressing). The guides takes care that you don't do anything alone. I often finished eating early to see a bit of Pjöngjang on my own. That was easy to do, but also strange.  Nobody speaks English.  Everybody is afraid because they are not allowed to talk to strangers. You also feel the spy network."

"I bought a lot of books before I went to North Korea. In a photo-book by Philippe Chancel I saw pictures of stuffed animals in the Kim Il-Sung University of Pyongyang. I really hoped we could see them, but the travel schedule was dense, and it wasn't possible to improvise or see anything on your own. We didn't see this taxidermy collection, but we dithers. In did get the chance to see two others.  In North Korea everything seems like a big performance. As we visited an elite-kindergarden, the children were waiting in their sunday-clothes and took us tourists by the hand to play, they sang songs and showed us the classrooms. They had one room with animals lined up around the walls. [pictured here] There where also fishes and birds, quite nice arranged, but also quide badly stuffed. They almost looked like puppets with their sad eyes."

 

"Our guide told me, that many schools and kindergardens have stuffed animals to teach children about nature. I don't now if they document only North Korean species, but I think so. The other taxidermy collection we saw was in the 'Children's palace' in Pyongyang (the old one, there is also a new one), where children learn to playing instruments. The animals were also badly stuffed. In an English book they had in a shop in Pyongyang I saw stuffed animals, birds, and small animals are for sale in the "Shop nr. 1", which is in the center of Pyongyang. Unfortunately it's closed for tourists. But you can buy butterflies in a shop in the Yanggakdo-Hotel in Pyongyang."