252CODAfaithfully reproduces a cowhide, using only bone black and earth pig-
ments. Although the skin patterns look entirely natural, closer inspec-
tion reveals that colonialist trade routes have been inscribed on their
surfaces.
To heighten the sense of objectification that disenchanted animals
through the classical age, Swanson operates a strategy typical of specula-
tive taxidermy: he conflates two different institutional practices for the
purpose of heightening the discursive incongruities that lie beneath the
surface of epistemology. The miniature skins are set flat using entomo-
logical pins, thus gesturing toward the outermost level of objectification
in modern natural history (fig. C.4). This is a peculiar sight in which the
intrinsic absurdity of taxonomical practices is exposed by the miniature
skins’ collapse of mammal and entomological display modalities. This
simple gesture poses ontological questions about animal lives and the
value we attribute to them in relation to their assigned group and species
of membership—what was the essential difference between the life of
FIGURE C.4 Cole Swanson, Specimen Hides, 2015, from Out of the Strong, Something
Sweet. Exhibition curator Dawn Owen, 2016, Art Gallery of Guelph, Canada. Dean
Palmer Photography. © Cole Swanson.