INTRODUCTION17theories, and by contextualizing it through a variety of lenses ranging
from the biopolitical to the posthuman and the anthropogenic, this book
aims to rethink our current relationship with animals, the environment,
biopower, capitalism, and perception through art.
Whether we like it or not, taxidermy has the ability to grasp the viewer’s
attention in an artworld that is most regularly too distracted by shock
tactics, sleek surfaces, and vacuous narcissism. And, by admission, some
taxidermy art partakes in these very shallow economies of consumption
too—but that is not the taxidermy this book focuses on. By the same
FIGURE I.2 Laurent Bochet, Lion, Panthera leo (zoo specimen), February 1, 2008.
Originally featured in 1000°C Deyrolle. © Bochet.