Stuffed animals strike a pose in Amsterdam
A FEARSOME stuffed crocodile hangs menacingly from the roof, mouth wide open, sharp teeth ready to strike: welcome to the Art Zoo, the new offbeat museum opening in Amsterdam.
Aiming to elevate taxidermy to high art, Art Zoo opened recently in the heart of the Dutch capital, in a famous building from the 17th century, a period that inspired the two artists that created the show.
Artist Ferry van Tongeren said: "Our work is inspired by 17th-century sculptures and painters from the Golden Age, the Dutch painters who painted animal scenes."
In that period, Dutch Golden Age painters drew inspiration from brightly coloured parrots, big cats and exotic animals captured in distant colonies and brought back to Europe to great amazement.
They were often painted in theatrical poses, wings spread or neck extended, which the artists tried to replicate with their stuffed displays.
A stuffed swan with wings deployed in defensive posture is a nod to "The Threatened Swan" by Golden Age master Jan Asselijn, hanging in the Rijksmuseum nearby.
"It's a sculpture of a skinless animal but it's still a sculpture and we create the drama, we create the story," Van Tongeren said.
He has been working with colleague Jaap Sinke for more than a decade as taxidermy-artists, a world away from the advertising industry where the two men met more than 20 years ago.
Sinke, 52, said he had always enjoyed the varied nature of being an artist.
"You're a little bit sculptor, you're a little bit surgeon, you're a little bit hairdresser and you're a little bit painter.
"I think it's nice to combine all those crafts into one."
In other exhibits, majestic tigers are displayed poised to attack, while birds of prey grip long snakes in their claws.
To head off criticism from animal lovers, the artists have prominently displayed a sign with their "Golden Rule".
"None of the animals in our taxidermy artworks was taken from the wild or bred specifically for the Art Zoo Museum. All died of natural causes, under the care of zoos and breeders."
Eva Krook, museum director, described the exhibition as an "aesthetic tribute to nature, wonder, and everything fragile and cherished".
"In a city where everything is becoming bigger, more high-tech and part of a chain, this museum offers an intimate space in the city centre where the art of taxidermy is celebrated in all its beauty."
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