Silenced Nature: The Taxidermy of the Living

From taxidermied animals to preserved plants, Western societies have wanted to conserve and preserve nature in a presumed ideal state. Immobile creatures that appear to be alive were nevertheless killed to achieve this striking illusion.

What does taxidermy reveal about our relationship with nature? Guest speakers discuss this relationship with nature by examining objects from the McCord Museum’s collections linked to this tradition.

Online round-table discussion presented live on June 2, 2021, in conjunction with the exhibition, Meryl McMaster – There Once Was A Song.

Guest Speakers

• Meryl McMaster, Artist
• Sara Angelucci, Artist
• Giovanni Aloi, Art Historian and Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Moderated by Bénédicte Ramade, Department of Art History and Film Studies, Université de Montréal.

There Once Was A Song

For the first time, Meryl McMaster has created an exhibition where she combines photography, her preferred art form, with other media like video and sculpture.

Her work questions the desire to capture and confine the natural world in order to freeze it in time.
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