SF Weekly, January 16-22, 2002
'Fish Tales'
Lauren Davies at The Lab
Todd Dayton
Taxidermy is an imperfect art, but its purpose is to render permanently lifelike that which is lifeless. Its practitioners spend weeks skinning, drying and stuffing hunting trophies, dead pets and fishermen’s conquests so that these creatures can live forever. What strikes many people upon their first glimpse of the embalmed critters, however, is exactly how unlifelike many of these specimens actually appear.
San Francisco artist Lauren Davies has plied her own version of the taxidermist’s trade for years, reconstructing ducks, squirrels and other animals not from their own skins and bones but from castaway household supplies. Intrigued by the idea that taxidermy isn’t an act of preservation but rather one of re-creation, she makes her own creatures entirely from non-animal materials. The week, her ode to mummified fish arrives at The Lab with “Ultra-marine: the workshop for alternative aquatic taxidermy.”
Davies, the gallery’s artist-in-residence, has hung the walls with her fake fish, constructed by following the directions from antiquated how-to taxidermy manuals. She made replica “bodies” from wood, chicken wire, carpet matting, building insulation, and newspaper. Some are painted in the overdone airbrush tones occasionally seen on wall-hung swordfish. A few are finished; many are under construction. A skin-less 25-foot shark swims motionlessly on the gallery floor. In a corner, a partially assembled marlin waits to have its large fin and sword attached. The far end of the gallery boasts a fin arcade, where Davies’ numerous models of the aquatic appendage claim wall space.
Those with a hands-on interest in alternative taxidermy may want to drop in on a Saturday for Davies’ fin-making workshop (call for details).
The opening reception for “Ultra-marine” happens Friday, January 18, from 6-9 pm. and continues through February 16 at The Lab, 2948 16th Street (at Capp), SF. Admission is free, call 864-8855