I have mixed feelings about Australian artist Emily Valentine's feathered dogs. I think they are absolutely exquisite but when I read that she makes them by trapping and killing the registered pest, the Indian Mynah bird (after her supply of roadkill and dead pets ran out), I felt uneasy. But it seems that is the point.
Valentine wants her art to "stimulate the viewer with the uncomfortable nature of the feather, to question our callousness treatment of animals and birds, and ask how we sub-consciously classify animals – pet or pest, valued or worthless, beautiful or plain and why."
See more of Valentine's dogs on her website, and let me know what you think about beautiful dog art made with dead birds. For me, the word would be conflicted.
Hat tip to Tara Aveilhe. Visit her blog, Nothing Elegant which is anything but. It's one of my favorites.
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