Damien Hirst may have made millions on sheep in formaldehyde, but he was hardly the first to exploit animals for art. In fact, he’s part of a storied lineage. Eadweard Muybridge, the nineteenth century photographer known for innocuous studies of galloping horses, once set a tiger from the Philadelphia zoo loose on a buffalo because he wanted to record killing in motion. But it is John James Audubon — pioneering conservationist and naturalist, whose tender portraits of birds canonized him the eyes of every binoculared weekend ornithologist — who has the most blood on his hands.
Grizzly Bears, John James Audubon (1785-1851)
Automata
It never ceases to amaze me that there are whole genres of human exertion waiting to be discovered. Automata is a world with a history dating back to what seems like the beginning of time, when King Solomon decided to have a throne built surrounded by bowing automaton animals and a brass eagle swooping over to crown him each time he sat down. Technically self-automated machines, the mesmerizing world of automata never seems entirely useful, something opposite the goal-oriented, computer-bound, non-movement of many of our lives. (The video below comes via Cabinet of Wonders)
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