Beauty of the Beast: Jewellery and Taxidermy

Artist list

Karley Feaver, Charlie Tuesday Gates, Kate Gilliland, Idiots, Benjamin Lignel, Märta Mattsson, Kelly McCallum, Kate MccGwire, Ted Noten, Reid Peppard, Iris Schieferstein, Simei Irene Snyman, Tinkebell, Cecilia Valentine, Emily Valentine, Tanel Veenre, Christel Verdaasdonk, Lisa Walker, Julia deVille, Niels van Eijk, Miriam van der Lubbe

From concept stores to cocktail bars: every style-conscious place these days displays a mounted fox or peacock in the window.  Taxidermy, the mounting of dead animals, is hot.  But what happens when you apply taxidermy to contemporary jewellery design?  In the exhibition, Beauty of the Beast, Museum Arnhem presents the work of more than 15 international designers and artists who make a connection between taxidermy, jewellery and visual arts.  On the one hand, the collection contains wearable jewellery and fashion accessories such as necklaces, brooches, bags, hats, hair ornaments and shoes. In addition some of the participating artists such as the artist duo Idiots (Afke Golsteijn and Floris Bakker) also offer more sculptural and autonomous work.  They combine mounted animals with materials like gemstones, embroidery and wrought iron.  Along with the exhibition, Gyre by British artist Kate MccGwire will be on display in the museum’s Koepelzaal (former ballroom).  This meters-long work, made out of thousands of crow feathers, has, like many other pieces in the exhibition, never been shown in the Netherlands before.