Art After DEATH: Reclamation…
Chistopher Marley

Death is a normal part of life; the two are inseparable. Most creatures seem to understand this instinctively – allowing death to happen, whether a quiet passing into old age or a violent removal from this world, often to feed or protect another life. But human beings have a strange fascination with death, ranging from denial of its finality and obsession with rebirth, to the need to surround ourselves with images of it. While most animals on earth leave their dead behind to merge once again with the soil and air, humans preserve death, and throughout the ages have found ways to live with it via cemeteries and tombs, photographs of dead relatives, freezers or taxidermy. Christopher Marley is an artist who specializes in taxidermy of exotic insects, snakes and birds, and calls his collection of beautifully preserved once-living sculptures “Reclamation” – of a body that would otherwise rot and decay. He sources his species from those that have died in captivity, and hermetically seals and mounts them in fascinating displays. My favorite pieces are his insect mosaics, because while nothing sends chills up my spine like a large, scurrying beetle, when they are stilled forever and arranged in gorgeous and symmetrical bursts of color, I love them. Check out some of his pieces below, which can be found for purchase here.