Petah coyne peacock virgil

Table of contents :
CRITICAL LIFE STUDIES
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
PROLOGUE: THE CARNAL IMMANENCE OF POLITICAL REALISM-REALISM, MATERIALITY, AND AGENCY
INTRODUCTION: NEW TAXIDERMY SURFACES IN CONTEMPORARY ART
1. RECONFIGURING djur SKINS: FRAGMENTED HISTORIES AND MANIPULATED SURFACES
2. A NATURAL HISTORY PANOPTICON: POWER, REPRESENTATION, AND djur OBJECTIFICATION
3. DIORAMAS: POWER, REALISM, AND DECORUM
4. THE END OF THE DAYDREAM: TAXIDERMY AND PHOTOGRAPHY
5. FOLLOWING MATERIALITY: FROM MEDIUM TO SURFACE-MEDIUM SPECIFICITY AND ANIMAL VISIBILITY IN THE MODERN AGE
6. THE ALLURE OF THE VENEER: AESTHETICS OF SPECULATIVE TAXIDERMY
7. THIS IS NOT A HORSE: BIOPOWER AND ANIMAL SKINS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE
CODA: TOWARD NEW MYTHOLOGIES—THE RITUAL, THE SACRIFICE, THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS
Appendix: Some Notes Toward a Manifesto for Artists Working with and About Taxidermy Animals
Notes
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Index

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Petah Coyne, Untitled # (Dante’s Daphne), –6; Collection SFMOMA, purchase through a gift from Thomas J. White in memory of Leslie Scalapino; © Petah Coyne; photo: Don Ross

I cannot say for sure whether I already saw a recumbent figure there beneath the dark foliage, before finding the protagonist’s name nested deep within the title. It&#;s difficult now to look at this cocoon of feathers and flowers without pondering who is entombed or entangled within.

Its surfaces erupt in clusters of fabric flowers and black branches. Tucked amid the blooms, two small birds can be found; at one end of the form a velvet-clad branch pushes upward out of the dense canopy of flowers and foliage, supporting a spray of wiry twigs, dark blossoms, and peacock feathers, their vivid tones muted by a dusting of black spray-paint. Colors range from blue-black to plum to crimson — all the colors of a bruise.

The work is Untitled # (Dante’s Daphne), –6, by Petah Coyne. Two poems are suggested in the (