Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Flogging a dead kitten


Nathalia Edenmont made a huge mass media breakthrough last year when Swedish tabloids made headlines like “The animals are being killed to become art!” I never did understand why Edenmont’s art is so controversial. Depicting dead animals is hardly a very new idea. Not even killing them yourself is new. Part of it might be that the photos are hauntingly beautiful, but Andres Serrano already made real human corpses – even murder victims! – look poetic, like this.

A short background: Edenmont kills cute animals, like kittens or bunnies or mice. She then combines the chopped up body parts with objects, or flowers, or something similar, and take photographs of them. They looks like old still life paintings at first glance.

Her pictures are very suggestive when seen in full format. It’s hard to do them real justice on a computer screen. They invoke strange – some might say surreal – feelings. But beyond that… nothing. Her work is empty of any real meaning except for the usual I-want-to-examine-the-double-standards-of-society-eating-steak-but-being-horrified-by-dead-kittens-rant.

It annoys me. She is obviously a very talented photographer, and her work is extremely charismatic, and that’s all she has to say? That modern society has double standards for animal rights? Most of us figured that out in our teens, and dealt with it or became vegans… besides perhaps Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson, but I digress…

Nathalia Edenmont is on the road to fame and international recognition. Her dead animals have created controversy wherever they’ve been shown. I just hope that she has something more to say, or she will soon become very boring.

24 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I absolutely love her work.
I think people need to stop making a fuss about her work and just accept death, as it is.
A part of every day.

10:16 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I look forward to the series where she cuts her own eye out and arm off and photos it. She is a idiot and her art is boring.

learn to use PHOTOSHOP like the billion other people on the internet that make the same types of images without killing.

3:23 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think photoshopped art is useless and stupid.

Nathalia is showing us REAL art not fake effects. The best part about her art is that it looks fake but it is VERY real. The thing that draws us in is, how well she makes it look fake. And also how taboo it is.

And the thing about doing it like everyone else... I'm pretty sure she's not trying to be like anyone else, incase you might not have noticed.

And who are you to say she's an idiot, she's a world famous artist, and you're just an anonymous poster on one of her many websites.

3:58 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

7:54 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Art is purely subjective.

I feel that this is beautiful work and the artist should be applauded for finding a new means for expression.

And anyone who seems to think that this is the worst these creatures could have endured, please watch Animal Planet one day... would you rather be killed in a humane way or mauled by a vicious animal and left to bleed to death?

1:08 PM

 
Blogger craig McIntosh said...

samantha, what are fake effects in photoshop. if it makes an effect doesn't that render it authentic? Actually printing out such a picture makes it substantial, yes? regardless of the substance originally photographed, and chincy nonetheless not fake.

anonymous, lighten up. you need not be so judgemental. if you wish to feel so hateful yoursef are you not contributing to a horendous atrocity. fleecing our minds, individuality, passions? should you grow a creative mind you'll look at this and value it's shock, apall etc... rather than acuse an idea and a vision (perhaps perverted) of idiocy, explore your appropriation of energy and anger and do something creative with that.

yes it's vile. yes it's beautiful. you don't have to agree. art is a bit less stale because of this kind of concept and execution. when we all agree art gets VERY stale. where has it been?

8:06 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To anyone that approves of this very cruel and very morally criminal act and considers it art is a prime example of what our world has become.No humanity, remorse or empathy for creatures as helpless as these.I am 11 yrs old and even I know that this is just an excuse to abuse and act out sick fantasies.This is a publicity stunt at its worst.Nathalia knew she had no real talent but longed for the spotlight.She used the media for this.The only reason I even heard of her was because I was looking up a real artist with talent and who does not kill animals to benefit themself.She is not world reknowned.She is known only by people that share her sick issues and by people who disagree with this being considered art.Ghandi said 'You Can Judge a Nations Moral Growth by How They Treat Their Animals'.Any nation that accepts this as art as compared to real art is morally dead.That's a scary thought.Any life no matter how small is worth more than this.

4:16 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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9:59 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

She is an awesome,beautiful and intillegent artist.

If she ever decides to kill a human being, and search for a human volunteer to be killed by her for her beautiful art work, I would happily volunteer to die in her hand.

Nothing can be a better experience than dying at the hands of a beautiful woman.

10:00 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i think that it is disgusting killing animals for the sake of art, if i were dead i would not want to be photgraphed but left to rest in PEACE!!!!!!

2:27 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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2:29 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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9:45 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Publicity gimmick!

I've seen commercial photography that's 10 times better and this stipid wench knows it, so she has to do something the set herself apart and generate publicity.

The only things the distinguishes her talent from that of photographers employed in making Kohler or Lens Crafters ads, is that she kills an animal and uses its body parts as a subject matter. It doesn't take talent or skill to kill an animal, any backwater hick can do that.

And if anyone retorts that her talent is in her arrangement...

Well, they haven't been exposed to much art. Eyes as Flower Pistils or on the end of stamens, heads on pedestals or fingertips are practically cliché.

10:16 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I dont know what is more offensive and evil, the artist or the people who enjoy this "art"

1:39 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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1:41 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It looks like dead animals...it is not beautiful, its ugly...she is world famous idiot and samantha is obviously retarded

1:19 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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2:33 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

4:19 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

4:39 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes Samantha, I 'accept' that death is a part of every day life. But I will tell you in all honesty that I find dead Human FAR MORE fascinating than dead animals. I wish I were allowed to just walk into a morgue and check out the bodies in their lying in viewing rooms!

5:29 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i believe that samantha is right lets face it, hundreds of animals are getting killed everyday, its life and we cannot change that no matter how we try. i think her art is amazing, why complain at her killing animals for art when animals are getting killed for no reason. tribalwolfie

5:06 AM

 
Blogger Unknown said...

Regardless of the methods, the art is rather poor. When I was told of these photos, I will admit that I was intrigued. My mind conjured up powerful images of this artistic decadence. While some of her pieces are not bad like this http://www.wetterlinggallery.com/artists/
nathaliaedenmont/04_nathaliaedenmont/
seebigpic_7.htm

Most of it is uninspired or simply tasteless like this http://www.wetterlinggallery.com/artists/
nathaliaedenmont/04_nathaliaedenmont/
seebigpic_6.htm

I feel they are a weak offering for an act so charged with passion. She chose to kill animals for her art in order to make a powerful statement. True. Yet, the brutal simpleness of the majority of her work leaves the viewer lost as to the true message, because the macabre takes center-stage. In the end, I think she is a better saleswoman than artist.

End my Opinion-

Everyone else is arguing about whether it is right or wrong to use animals in this way. The real question is: is this even art in the first place?

The above poster, who describes the publicity gimmick, and I, are of like mind. Sanitized brutality is not a new concept.

Arguments about cruelty, etc. really have no place here, as it has been clearly argued in many discussions across the ages that we are cruel and brutal towards animals as a whole. This is a fact of reality. The fact that she is throwing it in your face... is it really too much for most people to handle? The tone of many of the previous posts seems to indicate so.

I hope everyone understands that, by being outraged, you are typecasting yourself as the target audience of these very photos. Many of you would never have looked at them had she not put dead animals in them. Yet, many choose to condemn her for that very fact. What does that say about us?

Is it art? Just barely. Is it good? Not really.

Check out Tillie Cheddar for more controversial "art".

PS-TO RAHUL (above poster) :
,6tyr5 gtyh67u cer4wd3s2
-I just *literally* rolled my face on the keyboard and I still make more sense than you.

11:42 AM

 
Blogger Kat said...

Oh God.
I re-discovered her "artwork" after expunging it from my mind for a while.
It is terrible.
YOU KNOW WHY PEOPLE MAKE SUCH A BIG DEAL?
BECAUSE IT WOULDN'T BE ANY DIFFERENT IF SHE KILLED A PERSON WITH HER OWN TWO HANDS AND TOOK A PICTURE OF IT.
USE A PHOTOSHOP, WOMAN!
I am an artist myself, but all good artists know that every life form has a purpose besides being killed for photography.


~Jumpyham

PS please remove the link to the dead human photograph, it scared the crap out of me.

6:18 PM

 
Blogger Emil Lindahl Persson said...

I had no idea that this debate was still going on years after the blog was closed.

I realize that I should have cleaned out comments containing threats and abusive statements long ago, and I am sorry if anyone has been offended by them.

These comments have now been deleted.

1:33 PM

 

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