After looking at Patricia Piccinini and her linking the use of animals within science and art I moved forward in my research into sciences that are considered art.
I first stumbled onto TAXIDERMY, and began to research how taxidermy was used through historyand how it changed etc
I started with Charles Wilson Peale ( 1741-1827), an American taxidermist, he used taxidermy more as a science than an art. he placed his animals in their natural surroundings so audiences would understand how they lived.
This lead me to look at Carl Akeley (1846-1926) who also set his animals in a scientific way in their natural surroundings, he improved the methods of taxidermy which lead into Walter Potter ( 1835-1918) who was a taxidermist from around the same time ” the golden age of taxidermy”. however Potter did not display his taxidermied animals natural, he personified them, dressing them in clothes, giving them expressions and displaying them at tea parties and in schools. This would have shocked at the time so fall under shock art also, whereas again perhaps less shocking now, especially as the skill used in potters work was somewhat low. people said he was an awful taxidermist so perhaps removed the effect of reality as his animals almost looked like teddy bears. They were unrealistic and not believable and so lost their shock factor.
