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My Tropes series of works performs the desire of Whiteness to reduce animals to representative trophies. This addiction to classification results in the flattening of the animal subject, turning it into an object for enjoyment by colonial powers.
The taxidermy form evokes the ghost of the creature who, through a pin-the-tail on the donkey maneuver, is left to exist as but a fraction of itself as manifested through its trophied tail. The ghastly remnants of the animal are displayed atop a white, Corinthian column; this of course being the false Neo-Classical, flattened (devoid of color and reduced to Whiteness) interpretation of Antiquity. This putting-on-the-pedestal is emblematic of the hypocrisy expressed by the relationship of Whiteness and its need to destroy to “respect.”
Trope: Raccoon, 2021, Taxidermy Form, Raccoon Tail, Pin, Corinthian Column