About me

 

My interest in taxidermy began as a fascination with both its animal-objects, lingering old and musty beyond their natural course, and my particular interest in the aesthetic side of the natural and unnatural sciences.  During my studies I have focussed on philosophies which endeavour to explain and order phenomena, especially those for which the aesthetic power of an idea is equally important as the supposed knowledge the system seeks to generate.  Lists, hierarchies of the natural order, medical philosophies, complex webs of interconnections between various elements, systems of classification, paradigms build on exquisitely biased observations, and esoteric structures for explaining the connections between spiritual powers and worldly forms.  For some early astronomers, the ancient belief that the celestial spheres followed perfectly circular paths - pure and eternal motion as Aristotle had believed - was even harder to give up then an earth-centred universe. Some ideas are too beautiful not to be true.

Taxidermy presents the perfect blend of aesthetics and science and an exemplary case of how, when the two come together, they create something totally unique, frequently wrong, and altogether compelling. What is taxidermy? Art, nature, or science?  Something happens when the three occur in the same form, and this blog is part of my larger investigation to figure out what precisely that something is.

In 2005, I completed my Ph.D. from the Programme of Comparative Literature at the University of British Columbia. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, my thesis, “To make the stubborn Clod relent: Climate, Culture, and Cultivation in Early Modern England,” investigates cultural interpretations of climate and nature in seventeenth-century England. I also hold a B.F.A. in painting and printmaking from the University of British Columbia, a Post-Baccalaureate in painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and a Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities from Stanford University, during which time I focussed on material culture and early modern cabinets of curiosity. I have worked with collections at various galleries and museums including the Medical Division of Stanford Special Collections, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, and the Diane Farris Art Gallery in Vancouver. 

I am currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at M.I.T. and writing a cultural history of taxidermy. Please contact me with your opinions and sightings at ravishingbeasts@gmail.com.