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For NYC taxidermy enthusiasts, Thursday’s showcase is the best night of the year
By
Hannah Frishberg
Published Oct 24, 2024
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Photo by Timothy Caraballo / @openback
By
Hannah Frishberg
Published Oct 24, 2024
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Wunderkammer, an annual Brooklyn taxidermy event that showcases the morbid artform’s quirkier side, is back in Gowanus on Thursday night.
Wunderkammer (German for “room of wonder”) is now in its fifth year and offers participants a lineup of live performances and creatively presented animal corpses that, even for Brooklyn in 2024, is notably bizarre and unique.
“It’s the highlight of my October,” said artist and bird educator SamSam Graves, 33. “I’ve always loved creatures, but I never really understood how to honor them and taxidermy was a way.”
A piece by taxidermist Emma Berry at last year's event.
Photo by Timothy Caraballo / @openback
While mainstream taxidermy is known for its mounted hunting trophies and an ethos of conquering animals, a newer take on the genre, driven by animal lovers, embraces ethically sourcing and imaginatively preserving creatures’ bodies.
This year’s show, at the Bell House, will feature artists from the The No Ring Circus, drag performances and a panel of hosts and judges that includes Robert Marbury, co-founder of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, and Georgia Silvera Seamans, founder of biodiversity monitoring nonprofit Local Nature Lab.
Taxidermy – when done meaningfully – can be “reverent,” said the event’s founder, taxidermist Divya Anantharaman, who started Wunderkammer in 2018. She was drawn to it after witnessing “so much waste” during her career in the corporate fashion world.
Hosts Divya Anantharama and Adam Bashian onstage at last year's event.
Photo by Timothy Caraballo / @openback
“It’s really this insanely symbolic act, to turn the skin of an animal into a shoe, into a jacket, into a boot, into this thing that's going to carry you, this thing that's going to shield you from the elements … but then to treat that animal as just a product, as opposed to saying, ‘Hey, we're not going to waste this. We're going to use all these parts. Let's turn this weird part of the tail into some belt,” she said in a recent phone interview.
Past Wunderkammer competition entrants have included gilded skeletons, anthropomorphized raccoons, rodents re-enacting "Dirty Dancing," and much more.
A creation by Tracey Barr
Photo by Timothy Caraballo / @openback
“It feels like a home, and it's a place that I get to really express myself in a way that I don't get to anywhere else, even at other queer spaces,” says Nick DelCastillo, 23, whose skinned and bedazzled fox creation won Best In Show at the event in 2022. “I do feel like I belong there, and it's like I can be truly authentic and share my work in a way that I can't anywhere else.”
For some fans, the event offers a new perspective on life.
“I was going through a dark time [and] it was very therapeutic,” said Stephanie Almache, who manages Brooklyn events space Elsewhere. She said that the act of preserving and “celebrating a life” proved a deeply meaningful act.
Tickets are available online starting at $30, and there will also be tickets available at the door on Thursday night.
Tagged
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Hannah Frishberg
Hannah Frishberg covers New York City arts and culture. Got a tip? Email Hannah at [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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