Stuffed animals used to be a fixture of Victorian houses and museums, though for modern eyes they elicit complicated responses. They're certainly striking - often magnificent - examples of the taxidermist's skill. But they're also tragic, particularly when the animals are endangered, or even extinct.
Now a modern exhibition offers life-sized skeletons of endangered animals, made not from bone but from knitting.
Sculptor Michele Beevors believes the sense of loss to those looking at them, will be just as profound.
From tiny frogs to a towering giraffe, she's knitted their skeletons as part of a two-decade-long project, and many have been included in exhibitions about the country. This selection from the Anatomy Lessons menagerie is about to open in Otago Museum's animal attic
Michele's twelve chosen creatures will sit alongside some of the museum's historic skin and fur taxidermied exhibits.
Michele is principal lecturer in sculpture at the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic. She tells Lynn Freeman that, for her, these frozen-in-time creatures have held a sad fascination for her since she moved to Ōtepoti Dunedin 20 years ago.
Michele Beevors: Anatomy Lessons opens at Otago Museum on the 9th of April.
