Sculpture by the Sea Essay- Rod McRae
Question7: As values have changed with postmodern thought, artists have set out to create more interactive work to distinguish their work from the ‘traditional, paining-on-the-wall’ view of art. Explore this view in relation to how audiences can experience these works.
“My work starts with the basic premise that in order to communicate an idea and create maximum empathy with an audience the work has to be authentic”-Rod McRae. Rod McRae is a children’s book author and illustrator, taxidermist, designer, photographer and sculptor, and a dedicated artist and educator. McRae has exhibited his work around the world, with exhibitions in Australia, Italy, Japan, Spain and Czechoslovakia. McRae is deeply concerned with issues surrounding human activity and its effect on the natural world. Through his latest work, ‘The Tent of Wonders’ for Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi, McRae pursues an emotional connection with his audience to convey issues about biodiversity, hunting, pollution, colonisation, ownership and climate change through the use of non-traditional taxidermy specimens as the principal medium. The Tent of Wonders covers 180m2 under canvas and contains 16 installations. The work is offered in easy to understand portions with an element of humour to enhance the accessibility of the work. Through the use of real animals McRae is able to create a more interactive and confronting work as opposed to making sculptures out of bronze, metal or clay. McRae believes that if you want to get people to save an animal species you have to show them the real animal; and only by recognising the skin and bone, the fur, the feathers and talons, the claws, beaks, teeth and scales can the human viewer make an emotional connection and hopefully want to act to improve the life of other species.
One of the key issues McRae addresses in his installation pieces is hunting. In the installation Baboon Boy, the baboon is headless and is holding a mirror. The baboon’s body is a by-product of the big game hunting industry in South Africa, its head taken as a trophy. Where the head of the baboon has been severed another mirror has been placed and in its centre a red LED glows. The purpose of the mirror is to transpose the viewer’s head on the baboon, reminding us that we share 96% of the same DNA; yet we are killing them for fun. The Antelope in the installation Serengeti are also by products of the hunting industry and their heads have also been severed for trophies. The absence of their heads asks the viewer to fill in the gaps and imagine them as if they were alive; as they would have been if it wasn’t for us. Hunting is a major issue presented in Z is for Zebra. Z is for Zebra features a full mounted Burchell’s Zebra, imported from Montana USA, where he was part of a collection of trophies. This installation brings attention to the big game hunting industry and features advertisements for private hunting parks, where Zebra are specially bred for hunting. These works directly affront us by the senselessness of collecting animals as trophies by making the viewer empathetic to the animals.
McRae believes that our anxiety towards the natural world impedes our ability to fully embrace it and this is revealed through Happy Father’s Day, Mommie Dearest and The Case of the Laughing Hyena’s. Happy Father’s Day presents a utopian vision of nature as it presents a fox showing paternity towards ducklings that flock around him. This work underpins humankind’s desire to tame the natural world and order it according to human values and moralities. The violence and ‘godlessness’ of the natural world makes many humans anxious. The Case of the Laughing Hyena’s brings together a conventional museum display with a classic crime scene mystery, complete with police tape, real taxidermy hyena’s and fingerprints. This work asks us to think about how we represent nature in museums, sanitised and ordered. The reality however is often messy, violent and visceral as animal do not live by human morals, standards or values. The realness of the work McRae allows the viewer to see the hyena’s close up, which in the wild you cannot do as they are very dangerous.
McRae also addresses a major complex issue of this time, pollution. His installation piece Crying Out Loud in the Age of Stupid, presents an adult male Polar Bear standing onto of a fridge. The Polar Bear killed taken by the Inuit people of Canada for its meat and skin which is traded to support their community and has been their way of life for thousands of years. The message conveyed through this work is that the very mechanism human communities use to make ice is actually depleting the natural ice formations as it has caused decades of CFC release and ozone damage. The Polar Bear teeters on the edge of the fridge, symbolising it being on the edge of catastrophe as its habitat melts, its prey diminishes and starvation succeeds. Un-titled (with toxic additives) illustrates the demise of many of the world’s seabirds due to plastic ingestion. In this installation piece the skeletons of five Magellanic Penguin lay side by side in a divided crate. Their internal organs have been replaced by common plastic waste which are found floating in the world’s oceans. Through the use of the skeletons the viewer’s actually see first-hand the effect of plastic on sea animals; it can be digested and either damages the internal organs of animals or they choke on it. Either way the animals that ingest plastic die and it’s all because of our laziness to dispose of our rubbish responsibly.
Through the use of taxidermy specimens McRae is able to achieve awareness of major global issues and also emotionally connect with the viewer’s. Through this connection and awareness McRae hopes to have an impact on his viewers to change their attitudes and hopefully save/preserve the remaining species of animals we are lucky to still have.