Morgan’s narrative in her piece approaches death, something that traditional taxidermy avoids. This is so that the death of the taxidermied animal is not in the forefront of the viewer’s mind. Instead, traditional taxidermists, such as Akeley and Potter, approach life through lively content and visuals. Potter approaches human qualities of life through anthropomorphic kittens lined up for a wedding, an event that humans consider the “beginning of a new life.” His diorama “The Kitten Wedding,” is an anthropomorphic scene of a kitten wedding; a bride and groom stand toward one end of the rectangular diorama as a pastor stands in front of them watching the groom place a gold band around the bride’s finger (paw). Seventeen other kittens are in
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It’s as if the sheet of glass represents mankind’s deeply complicated relationship with nature; there’s an attempt to learn and to understand, but a failed effort to actually connect with nature (Barclay, 2016). In this case, the taxidermist has the power to control the viewer as well. This power can plays into “power is knowledge” . By placing the sheet of glass there, the taxidermist doesn’t allow any contact with the outside world to step into the realm of attempted realism. Potter and Akeley’s dioramas have a physical barrier made of glass and fulfill the power over the viewer and define humans’ complicated relationship with nature. However, the cube-shaped environment instead of glass creates the barrier in Morgan’s diorama, and with this her diorama does not approach mankind’s relationship with nature the same way Potter and Akeley’s dioramas do. Even though she doesn’t use glass, Morgan still controls the viewer by making them participate in the action of observing the space of death along with the taxidermied fox. With this, she still utilizes “power is knowledge,” like in Potter and Akeley’s dioramas. Because she can manipulate the audience without glass barrier, Morgan’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” maintains the status as a diorama. Both “The Kitten Wedding” and “The Muskrats” force the observer to objectify the dead animals because the observer is put into a position where they have to treat the specimens a specific way to gain information from them and their narratives. For example, in “The Muskrats,” there is only one perspective in which the observer can observe the specimens because the diorama has the form of a cabinet. In addition, because the observer can only see through one perspective through the display, there is not a 360-degree observation of these animals, giving them more of a 2D perspective than “The Kitten
It’s as if the sheet of glass represents mankind’s deeply complicated relationship with nature; there’s an attempt to learn and to understand, but a failed effort to actually connect with nature (Barclay, 2016). In this case, the taxidermist has the power to control the viewer as well. This power can plays into “power is knowledge” . By placing the sheet of glass there, the taxidermist doesn’t allow any contact with the outside world to step into the realm of attempted realism. Potter and Akeley’s dioramas have a physical barrier made of glass and fulfill the power over the viewer and define humans’ complicated relationship with nature. However, the cube-shaped environment instead of glass creates the barrier in Morgan’s diorama, and with this her diorama does not approach mankind’s relationship with nature the same way Potter and Akeley’s dioramas do. Even though she doesn’t use glass, Morgan still controls the viewer by making them participate in the action of observing the space of death along with the taxidermied fox. With this, she still utilizes “power is knowledge,” like in Potter and Akeley’s dioramas. Because she can manipulate the audience without glass barrier, Morgan’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” maintains the status as a diorama. Both “The Kitten Wedding” and “The Muskrats” force the observer to objectify the dead animals because the observer is put into a position where they have to treat the specimens a specific way to gain information from them and their narratives. For example, in “The Muskrats,” there is only one perspective in which the observer can observe the specimens because the diorama has the form of a cabinet. In addition, because the observer can only see through one perspective through the display, there is not a 360-degree observation of these animals, giving them more of a 2D perspective than “The Kitten