Constance Thalken

Eyes Open Slowly | Eyes Open Slowly employs the prism of taxidermy to investigate the tangled, often paradoxical, relationship between humans and animals. The work explores animal essence and the emotional and psychological complexities that arise from reanimations of that essence through the practice of taxidermy.

Animals possess a natural magnetism, and taxidermy sustains the illusion of their presence, providing an intimate experience impossible in real life. Yet this animal/object dichotomy can be unsettling and disorienting. We are in awe of what appears to be an animal, yet the actual animal is gone. Because death is inherent to taxidermy, a sense of loss and grief is part of each encounter.

These images were made in a taxidermy shop owned by a 92-year-old master taxidermist who has kept his shop in continuous operation for over 70 years. The shop itself is utterly breathtaking - a flow of cavernous rooms each overflowing with residue from decades of working with animal skins. The shop's diverse clientele reflects the complexity of our entanglements with animals. Prominent natural history museums, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wealthy game hunters, international franchise steakhouses, and local trophy seekers all procure mounting services from the shop.

Whether capturing animals in the process of “becoming” or using abstraction to complicate the reading of surface, the work exposes our profound longing to connect to the natural world. Simultaneously, it questions our urge to possess and immortalize it through the act of killing. www.constancethalken.com