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Because who wouldn’t want a taxidermied chipmunk with a doll’s head in a flower pot?

Because I have about fifty other things going on, including a few stalled blog posts and an increasingly urgent need to pack for my trip to Greensboro tomorrow (my BFF is treating me to the Amtrak fare and a long weekend’s mutual writerly support, yay!), but I also feel like shaking up the uber-serious mood of this blog ever since that last piece posted, and finally, because I have been inspired by a dear friend’s adventures in (ahem!) ‘art’ criticism, I give you… this.

Please understand that I do not, in any way, endorse the practice of taxidermy. (FFS, I’m a vegetarian!) But I happened upon this… thing in a bookstore near VCU (which, in keeping with its catering to eccentricity, is open sometimes, closed at other times, with no predictable pattern to it), and I just didn’t quite know what to do with the surreal image. So of course I’m foisting it upon you.

Because who wouldn't want a taxidermied chipmunk with a doll's head in a flower pot?

…And, what was even more inscrutable? The other end (business end?) of said chipmunk1:

And the note next to the chipmunk's ass said...

(Note: If you couldn’t make that out, the lettering says, The rule of consciousness is near. Um, okay, WHAT?)

Which, to me, doesn’t make me a lick of sense, but maybe I’m just not enough of a ‘real artist’ to get it.

I suppose this would be called, by aficionados of the form, either ‘mixed media’ or ‘sculpture.’ (And/or ‘animal cruelty,’ ‘crap,’ and ‘OMFG what drugs was this person on when they made this thing’ by others.)

Let’s say we agree to call this ‘sculpture.’ (For the purposes of argument. C’mon, just play along.)

If, indeed, it is sculpture, how did it get there? Is this ‘student work’? And if so, is it, by any bizarre chance, the work of a student in VCU’s Sculpture Department, ranked again by US News & World Report as the top program of its kind in the country?

(Clearly, stranger things have happened.)

__

1 Unless it’s actually a squirrel and I’ve got everything wrong. It’s not like I’m an expert in differentiating between varieties of taxidermied rodents, okay?

Post a comment — Trackback URI RSS 2.0 feed for these comments This entry (permalink) was posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at 11:17 pm by Victoria Marinelli. Filed in Amusements, Images, Nonsense, Richmond.
  • KemeticWoman
    That is too funny. Retired now, but I can relate to wanting to redirect, rather than interact.
  • I love it. I seriously would buy it. It's so inscrutible.
  • Um hey. Just went to your blog, and - you have a picture of your own brain in the template? Freakin' genius. And I'm SO jealous. Had a brain MRI a few years back and I ASKED THOSE BASTARDS for a souvenir photograph but they 1) acted like I was nuts (insert ironic laughter here) and 2) claimed they could only save, not print the digital image because printer cartridge was out or some such crap.

    I did, at least, learn that I have a weird disorder ("chiari" I think it's called) where the lower part of my brain stem extends further than it ought to, crowding the area near my spinal column. Whatever the medical consequences are of that (for some, there is no impact; others have radical brain surgery for headaches and whatnot; don't know if my migraines are due to the brain-stem-thingie or not, but ain't nobody cutting into my brain, motherfucker), I like to think of it as my brain's own metaphor that illustrates my writer's motto: "Please, God, no more material."

    Because my brain is literally stuffed with it, see? "I DON'T HAVE ROOM FOR ANY MORE, kthxbai."
  • Yeah, I'm kinda friendly with the old brain. I've had like five brain surgeries, though, so my surgeon's a bit friendly with it, too. Part of the reason I have the brain pic up is because a lot of the blog is about epilepsy, which I have due to brain damage from when I was a kid. (So where you have more than enough brain, I have a little less--but I make do).
  • My brain is constantly getting me in trouble. Need some extra, just let me know! :)
  • "VCU’s Sculpture Department, ranked again by US News & World Report as the top program of its kind in the country? "

    Just another example of why one should not believe what one reads in US News & World Report.
  • The charitable theory here is that the existence of this... thing... in the same town, just a few blocks from the learning institution at which said program is housed, is a coincidence. (And to insert fairness into the snark: I have seen some fantastic work come out of that program.) We can always hope, right? :)
  • I would love to put that in my office at work. Whenever someone asked me a question I didn't want to answer, I'd just point to the card and say "The rule of consciousness is near." It beats what I do now, which is to just scream "WHO SENT YOU???"
  • KemeticWoman
    That is funny. Retired, but having been an office worker, I can relate to you comment. That artifact is truly bizare, and your coment is funny. There is so much sickness in the world, I have to laugh just to keep from loosing my mind. Thanks for your humor. Now my comment: the art reminds me of the male urge to kill and make war...with the head of a baby victim, our children.
  • Ah, if only I hadn't disabled sitemeter* OR if you had some link right there w/ your name. Brain is itching to know what sort of office you're in, because I almost want to go steal and send this thing to you just to enable this scenario.

    * Which I'm still glad I did.
  • Added my link. I'm afraid my office isn't that interesting, visually. Math ed research project at a university. If I were to do this, that's just say: more of James' usual.
  • http:/drmomentum.com/aces

    My office is in a research center for a university, and its appearance will probably not excite you. Fairly vanilla. If the atmosphere and culture in our center were more staid and businesslike, it might be funny to see people's reactions, but by now they're used to the weird from me. Here's what my office looked like when it was new. OK, it's actually a cubicle with tall walls. http://www.flickr.com/photos/drmomentum/570715428/

    In any case, your post is why I love that people have cameras in their phones. You can remember and share all of the weird stuff you see.
  • Dude! Totally sorry I didn't see your comment in the moderation queue until this point. (Yeesh, and you left it a week ago.) Well, that's what I get for being a total slacker about the blogging.
  • Ummm, my vote is on vast amounts of drugs. Probably taking acid then going to yard sales.
  • Totally with you on that.
  • Oh dear.
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