The Journal

Issue date: 8/30/07 Section: Lifestyle

Media Credit: Lanz Christian Banes "Leghorn," a taxidermied deer covered in a red and pink striped crochet sweater, hangs in the Cecille R. Hunt Gallery as part of an exhibition of Houston artist Elaine Bradford's work.

Approximately 50 visitors entered the Cecille R. Hunt Gallery on Aug. 24, seeing a variety of taxidermy covered in crochet sweaters. Mocking squirrels climbed the walls in blue hooded sweaters; an orange sweater attached to deer antlers laid on the floor like a carcass. The exhibit entitled "Elaine Bradford: Recent Work," currently on display in the Hunt Gallery, is one that few will forget.

"I love the way she's transforming the traditional craft of crochet into this," said Simiya Sudduth, a junior sculpture major.

Bradford's love of crochet began when her grandmother taught her at a young age. She spent her time making scarves.

"I just didn't have the patience to make anything more complicated," she said. "I really didn't start getting into it until grad school, and now I will crochet 14-15 hours a day."

She began to make sweaters for everything in her refrigerator and then moved on to making them for tree trunks.

"I loved how the crocheted sweaters were comforting the trunks and the warmth that they were giving them," she said. "The absurdity of it all made it funny. A 15-foot tall sweater for a tree is just ridiculous."

Bradford got the idea to cover taxidermy with sweaters when she went to her family's home in Houston for Christmas.

"My family likes to hunt, and we have taxidermy on the walls," she said. "I saw this deer head and thought it would look awesome in a sweater, but I thought I was just insane (for thinking that). I waited awhile, trying not to make a sweater for it, but then went with it, and here we are."

The result is sweater-covered dead animals with extensions of yarn morphing their bodies into other creatures all together.

"I really like how she extended the animals," said Annie Nieman, a sophomore art major. "She gave them a mythical and fantastic look, but you could still tell they are animals."

Bradford said she was trying to make the animals look not exactly like real animals.

"I made them with the idea of sideshows, circuses and freaks of nature," she said. "I wanted them to have extensions and abnormalities. I'm like a grandma mad-scientist."

One of the pieces, "Leghorn," featured a goat head covered in a pink and red striped sweater. The antlers were extended all the way down to the ground where they were connected to tiny hooves at the end. Other pieces also displayed the idea of distortion. "Long Neck," a mounted antelope head, had a an extremely long neck, making it look as though a snake-antelope was coming out of the mounting leading to the head on the floor.

The fact that the animals were real taxidermy and not plush animals was slightly disturbing to some gallery goers, but the consensus was they added to the show.

"I had no idea that they were real taxidermy," said Tiffany Davis, a senior photography major. "I saw the images online and thought they were just made out of the crochet. The real taxidermy gave it a new dimension, and the display is so much better in person."

Senior ceramics major Acadia Shields-McGee agreed with Davis' sentiment.

"I really liked the fact that they're actual taxidermy animals," she said. "They're looking at you while you're looking at them. It's creepy and weird, but you want to comfort them."

According to Bradford, in most of her newer work she has left the eyes of the animals uncovered to make viewers connect with them and give life to the pieces. On her older pieces, the eyes remained covered by sweaters. The work is hung at eye-level, so people have to make eye contact.

One piece that draws onlookers in is "No Legs." The deer remains on the ground with no legs. It is positioned exactly so viewers can look directly into its dead eyes

For Bradford, her work gives comfort and warmth to the dead animals. If she did not use real taxidermy, the images would be fake and not the same, she said.

"Covering the animals in sweaters changes them," she said. "It takes something many people are uncomfortable with, like taxidermy, and makes it comfortable."

"Elaine Bradford: Recent Work" will be on display from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday until Sept. 21 The show is free and open to the public.

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