Wild Things: Sculpture by Troy Emery

Overview

There is something about Troy Emery’s works that place them distinctly in the ‘specimen’ basket rather than the ‘sculpture’ one. Perhaps it is the bizarrely life-like quality they adopt, as these animals, within their tasseled, decorative outerwear, are frozen in time – mid-step, poised, vulnerable - as if in their natural surroundings.

Emery is a Sydney-based artist who works with taxidermy and brightly coloured textiles to create experimental sculptural pieces, usually in the form of fictional, alien-like animal species. The sculptures are generally created through the use of hobby taxidermy materials and easily sourced craft textiles such as tassels and pom-poms.

On one level, the works are sensational, tactile, visually appealing; these invented creatures are viewed in the same way that exotic animals in a natural history museum would be – with eagerness and wonderment. Yet on another level the works themselves, and indeed the response they elicit in their viewers, present a reflection on our cultural and historical understanding of animals, as we position them as objects in our homes, museums, and fashions.