Preface 07 Post-mortem photography | The coffin as a box of tricks 09
Taxidermy | Untamed passion for the perished
How an innocent boy was infected by a dead fox 13
Victorian taxidermy | Eternal love for dead corpses 17
Freaks of nature | Stuffed animals freaking out 19
Taxidermy today | Taxidermy not doomed to die after all 23
Our crib de curiosités | Living in a morgue 25
Voracious vermin | Assassins with excess hair and carcasses picked bare 27
The vermin battle | Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth 31
Billy the goat | Vermin under the skin 35
Emergency cases | Le cabinet de toxicités | A severe case of alopecia 39
Masks | Life is a masquerade
The face of a split personality 43
Mothmeister behind the mask | Our claustrophobic comfort zone 45
History of masks | The metamorphosis of masks 49
Mask phobia | Fear has many faces 51
Clown masks | How laughter gradually stiffened and turned into pure panic 55
Death masks | Face to face with death 65
Capirote masks | From cloak of charity to spiteful costume 69
Pest masks | How the beaked doctors of death became the cat’s lunch 73
Roadshows & collaborations | Inspiring encounters along the way
Roadshow | If we were meant to stay in one place, we would have roots instead of feet 81
Roadshow | Epecuén, the salted paradise 85 Collaboration | Mating animals 97
Collaboration | Adele Morse, mother of the stoned fox 99
Roadshow | In an overstimulated world, nothingness is bliss 109
Roadshow | Goli Otok, the Hell of the Adriatic Sea 115
Collaboration | Annie Montgomerie, doll artist 121
Roadshow | La Femme Fatale, aka Mother Nature 131
Roadshow | Iceland, the goddess of mood swings 135
Collaboration | Candice Angelini, headpiece designer 153
Roadshow | Urwald Sababurg, an enchanted fairy forest with evil roots 167
Collaboration | Erik Bergrin, fiber artist 175
Roadshow | On the hunt for mystery guests in the Wild West 177
Collaboration | Louis Fleischauer, body-artist and sculptor 189
Roadshow | Mongolia, where the horizon keeps you on a string 195
Roadshow | Irbene, a rusty steel Soviet espionage station 215
Collaboration | Bob Basset, leather mask designer 227
Roadshow | Naissaar, the island with a short fuse 235
Roadshow | The concrete stomach ulcer of the Albanian people 257
Preface After a breeding period of more than 25 years, Mothmeister — a two-headed shape-shifting creature — crawled out of its fragile cocoon, stretched its delicate antennas and spread its wings. Uninhibited and curious, it set out into the big world, driven by an insatiable Wanderlust. Closely related to the moth, Mothmeister also mainly lives off dead organic material: taxidermy in all its glory of smells and colors. The Weird and Wonderful Post-Mortem Fairy Tales is a tribute to these deceased, stuffed animals. The portraits in this book were mostly inspired by childhood dreams and nightmares. In addition, this book tells the story of Mothmeister’s adventures on the road, the crosspollinations with other artists, the passion for taxidermy, and the fascination with masks, and it tells you about the world Mothmeister lives in. A look behind the mask of two impulsive minds that blindly follow their gut feeling. The result is a book in which everything is mixed together, one thing flowing into the other, with pure intuition as the connecting thread.
Assassins with excess hair and carcasses picked bare Not only a pitch-black two-headed raven, a wolf ’s head trophy, and a horde of deer antlers hang above our heads in our Salon de Curiosités; the Sword of Damocles hangs there, too. The list of problems that can ruin our indoor zoo is a constant threat. From squirrels that mutate to rare albinos due to a sunlight overdose, penetrating moisture that allows the famous Black Fungus to grow like crazy, and so-called fat burn. Fat that has not been scraped away properly by the taxidermist seeps through the skin and oxidizes, causing the skin to burst, which results in the shedding of fur and feathers. An all-you-can-eat buffet from which a multitude of voracious vermin nibble to their heart's desire. But the phobia of phobias remains the all-destructive insect raid. Old-fashioned taxidermists would stuff their animals with hay, wood shreds, jute, and newspapers. The biotope par excellence for the most cunning intruders in the insect kingdom. Moths, dust mites, and carpet beetles lay their eggs in folds or tears of the skin. Once the larva — or woolly bears — emerge, these terrifying body snatchers drill holes in the skin, dig tunnels in the animals, and eat away at them until there is nothing left, leaving them bare and empty. Utter exploitation.
Taxidermy | Voracious vermin
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| 77
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Roadshow | Iceland
| 149
Candice Angelini | headpiece designer For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to morbid aesthetics. I found this type of beauty in the uninhibited way in which people in the 19th century dealt with death. For instance, they commissioned post-mortem portraits, or kept a lock of hair as a memento of a deceased loved one. I feel sentimentally connected with this century and try to express that nostalgia in my work. The death masks are like an imprint of life; like wanting to maintain a substrate of an existence. I use real, old, human hair and old materials to make the masks look realistic. Various themes reoccur in my work. The sculptured head coverings refer to my relationship with nature and my animistic beliefs. The masks and the dolls refer to my youth and more specifically express the passage between two stages: life here and now on earth and the afterlife. I believe in reincarnation and like to think of our body as a costume that we change in each life.
Collaboration | Candice Angelini
| 153
On the hunt for mystery guests in the Wild West Everything is bigger in Texas. Just as there is no end to the excessive portion of calories in the stacked burgers, the distances between cities are also pretty humongous. In this Lone Star State, you either consume gasoline until you want to puke or gorge on a 2 kg Texan Ranch Steak. The scenic view is limited to booted cowboys on the prairie, cattle, barren desert, and numerous laboring nodding donkeys that pump oil non-stop from the ground. We, however, go down south in search of the elusive Marfa Lights and the infamous goat sucker, also known as the Chupacabra.
Roadshow | US
| 178
The Marfa Lights, a shady affair The Big Bend County US highway 90 from San Antonio to West Texas is in the middle of nowhere, just outside the Marfa ranching community in the Chihuahuan Desert. For more than 100 years, a mystery has captivated everyone. Local believers and skeptical researchers have never been able to completely explain it. The mysterious Marfa Lights. They remain intangible and thus inexplicable. The Marfa Lights were officially first spotted in 1883, but Native Americans saw them flying even before that time. According to eyewitnesses, the glowing orbs appear suddenly and randomly. They dancingly float above the horizon, change colors, then zoom away at breakneck speed, disappearing for good. There are even rumors of the Marfa Lights splitting in two, stalking people, and firing ultrasonic sounds. Fanatic supporters of paranormal phenomena claim that the lights are wandering spirits of Indians, lost souls, or aliens. Skeptics claim they are reflections of car lights, but the Marfa Lights were spotted even before the car was invented. Or is it purely an optical illusion? A fata morgana effect, caused by sharp temperature fluctuations in the air? Broken starlight? Marsh gas? Geologically generated electricity? Or simply a rarity that Mother Nature insists on keeping a secret? Whatever it is, there has been no scientific explanation so far. Maybe we should inquire with the neighbors of the Army Airfield, a closed site. Who knows, maybe they have something to do with it... In any case, the unexplainable ghost lights are officially recognized as a tourist attraction with a Marfa Lights Viewing Area, and its own toilet facility for anyone who gets the shits from the endless waiting.
Roadshow | US
| 179
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Authors Adele Morse, Annie Montgomerie, Bob Basset, Candice Angelini, Erik Bergrin, Louis Fleischauer, Mothmeister Translations Melanie Shapiro Editing Nathalie De Man Photography Mothmeister Graphic design Mothmeister
If you have any questions or comments about the material in this book, please do not hesitate to contact our editorial team: markedteam@lannoo.com Š Lannoo Publishers, 2018 D/2018/45/15 – NUR 652/655 ISBN: 978 94 014 4905 2 www.lannoo.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. #AREYOUMARKED