HIP DÉCOR: Speaking of hipsters, let’s take this hunt from the streets to the interior of homes. Rachel Poliquin says “Open any home decorating magazine and you are likely to find at least one vintage trophy incorporated into a decoration scheme. At the very least, you will probably see a modern reworking of a trophy head fabricated from cardboard or plastic or carved from wood. The crucial point of these reappropriated trophies, however, is that they were not killed by the current owner” (Polquin, 164). The hipster attraction to taxidermy is displayed perfectly in Jo-Anne McArthur’s photograph “NYC Girl Carrying Deer Head” from her “For Our Amusement”. Secondhand taxidermy purchasing removes the hipster from the criminal act of killing and skinning the animal, allowing them to go striaght for the nostalgia that surrounded eras when this practice went unquestioned. What if it still becomes popular? “For the past decade, vintage taxidermy has been appearing in high-end boutiques, chic restaurants, and private homes for the style-conscious” (Poliquin, 167).


Of reclaimed vintage taxidermy becoming a popular hipster decor item, Poliquin notes “The kitschy aura of secondhand trophies arose as a shadow fell across hunting in the twentieth century” (165). Real hunting is reserved for a certain type of U.S. American, it seems, the less city-slick, less wealthy.


Poliquin: artist + writer of animal books 4 kids + adults. - In this section of book she covers a few important things about reclaimed taxidermy: Taxi outlives OG owner → origin story gone. New owner = no guilt (+hunting is cancelled) detached from animal death. ANTIQUE: found at flea markets with more character, kitsch/camp over the top aesthetic = nostalgia fulfilled. Chose this because there is a lot of writing about taxidermy out there but I haven’t found anything that comes sort of close to fake taxidermy as this.