



Art ennobles the human spirit. Through contemplation of the beautiful object, the soul ascends through the subtle bodies. Seeking the reflection of its own sublimity, rising in the realms, it comes, at last, to rest in the world of pure forms, where the angel of the imagination speaks to it in its proper tongue: oy Gott im Himmel, what in the fuck is THAT?!







If certain senior members of my family had not already perished, Jessica Joslin’s sculptures would certainly kill them dead. Not for my anxious kin, these dead-eyed taxidermic curiosities, sharp of tooth and claw. While I have no reason to think the artist lusts for the blood of the elderly—on the contrary, she’s into the whole ethical sourcing thing and recommends this responsible supplier of “osteological specimens”—the sight of these part-clockwork, part-flesh-and-bone sideshow attractions is sure to induce cardiac arrest in a body enfeebled by age.

I’ll grant that the playful expressions of some of these critters are kind of cute, but the cuteness only makes them more grotesque. They don’t know they’re the spawn of hell. They think this is all some kind of game. Well, let’s see how much “fun” it is when one of them comes to life and breakfasts on your lungs.



















Below, video from Joslin’s 2014 show “The Immortal Zoo”:

