This month, Funeral Party’s Chad Elliott tells his tales of taxidermy.
“My passion for taxidermy probably started the same way anyone else’s did: when I was young, the patriarchs of my family would hunt deer. The freezer in my family’s garage was always well stocked with venison, and sometimes other protein sources my grandfather, uncles, and brothers had procured on their excursions into the Sierra Nevada wilderness. Eventually, my family’s workshop began to look like a natural history museum filled with preserved deer, bobcats, and even an armadillo! I realised then the beauty of taxidermy.
Taxidermy has allowed me to actualize creatures I could otherwise never see. My first encounter with rogue taxidermy occurred when my grandfather made a jackalope for me. If you are unfamiliar, a jackalope is an imagined creature actualized through taxidermy by fusing antlers to a jackrabbit. Rogue taxidermy provides a venue for me to unleash my creativity in the three-dimensional world. So far I have conjured many imaginary beings through taxidermy, such as a griffin, a unicorn, and chimera, as well as creatures I have imagined myself. I have fashioned a potbelly pig with crows’ wings fused to its back.
However, should it become legal, I will pioneer a new form of it that hybridizes the carcasses of rock stars. For example, one might conjure Jim Morrissey, Mick Bowie, or even OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Drums). I aim to do for taxidermy what many of my contemporaries are doing for backing tracks and lip-synching.”
