Kate Clark - Taxidermy artist

Photo Credit : Kate Clark

Today I wanted to share with you the amazing work of Brooklyn-based artist Kate Clark.

She uses clay to sculpt human faces and then covers this in animal skin to make her unusual taxidermy and breathtakingly beautiful sculptures.

Kate comes from a background in arts; her father was a painter and it was originally painting which Kate enjoyed and wanted to pursue. It was not until she went to college that she discovered her love for sculpting.

Kate only uses imperfect pelts in her work. Ones that have holes or rips in and are likely to have been thrown away by other taxidermists. She salvages these pelts and turns them into sculptures which are both unsettling and magically beautiful.

Licking the Plate by Kate Clark

Kate says of her work....

"When encountering my sculptures, the viewer is faced with a lifelike fusion of human and animal that investigates which characteristics separate us within the animal kingdom, and more importantly, which unite us. 

Our current lifestyle does not necessitate physical interaction with wild animals. Yet we revere the natural world and are seduced by characteristics we no longer see in ourselves, such as fierceness, instinctiveness, purity. 

The unexpectedness of the human face on these animals also evokes curiosity. They are obviously reconstructed yet they are not monstrous, they are approachable, natural, calm, innocent, dignified. The facial features are believable and the skin, which is the animal’s skin, has been shaved to reveal porous and oily features that we recognize as our own. The viewer has an intimate relationship with the face and then identifies with the animal, acknowledging the animalistic inheritance within the human condition."

In this short video she talks to National Geographic who filmed her in her studio over a 2 month period.

The Dorothy Days X