CODA253a bovine and that of an insect to the natural history scientist of the
eighteenth century and, by extension, to the scientists of today? But if at
one moment Specimen Hides paradoxically casts us as giants in charge of
ordering the world, in the next moment Swarms rapidly dwarfs us by
presenting the undeniable material presence of two preserved cowhides,
one black and one white, this time fully life-size. The skins are once again
flattened, a symbolic gesture that nonetheless alludes to seemingly unre-
lated practices of skin tanning (in the production of clothing) and taxo-
nomic collecting. But in this sense, Swanson’s skins are substantially
different from those encountered in the work of Snæbjörnsdóttir/Wil-
son, Galanin, or Mntambo. Suspended in their ambiguous, headless flat-
ness, these skins are transfixed by entomological pins whose purpose,
this time, is purely aesthetic. The pins are not positioned methodically
as they would be in a natural history display; they cluster at the center of
the hide, dispersing toward the outer edges. Carolyne Topdjian has noted
that the pins “puncture the skin again and again, denoting a repeated
act that borders on violence. With each prick, a blemish forms on the oth-
erwise pure fur, creating a sense of pain and disgust. The skin’s borders
FIGURE C.5 Cole Swanson, Star Swarm, 2015, from Out of the Strong, Something
Sweet. Exhibition curator Dawn Owen, 2016, Art Gallery of Guelph, Canada. Dean
Palmer Photography. © Cole Swanson.