Haunting History

It is believed that after a traumatic event a spirit, residue, or zeitgeist, can attach itself to a place or object. History haunts us long after its time. If this is true, then the lives and experiences of non-human animals have most certainly attached themselves to the objects scientists, and museum curators, call taxidermy specimen.  Like all museological objects, taxidermy is marked by the processes that lead to its display (capture, death and preservation). Displaying these uncanny entities is predominantly the realm of the Natural History Museum and, like grand old mausoleums, they too are filled with the colourful breath of past experience. It is curious that when the ghosts of history are invoked, Science still cannot entirely prove, or disprove, their (its) existence. However small it may appear, doubt is still a lively part of scientific inquiry and can help to illuminate its processes, cultural impact and motivations. For now, this ambiguity still has the capacity to open a space for curiosity, wonder and imagination. In this spirit, the website before you explores and presents the work of Jesse Garbe and his examinations of Natural History, taxidermy and the conventions, limitations and impact of painting on nature.