Thomas Grünfeld

Born in 1956 in Opladen (DE)
Lives and works in Cologne (DE)

  

Misfit (fox-terrier, renard, biche)

1996
Stuffed animals
55 x 40 x 40 cm
Purchased in: 1997

An ironic critic of German good taste – “Gemütlichkeit” – Thomas Grünfeld is mad keen on interior decoration. He produces “shelf-pictures” or “skirt-pictures” and some unlikely-looking poufs. Working as a taxidermist, he went on to compose his first Misfits, a kind of bestiary inspired from Bavarian tales and popular legends, the Volpertigers. His Misfits, stuffed hybrid specimens of several animal species, are real sculptures. Often displayed in a glass case, these cross-breeds fit perfectly in the tradition of the Renaissance curio collection which always conveyed a special interest in strange phenomena, be they natural or artistic.

The Misfit bought by Frac Lorraine is a clever blend of fox terrier, hind and fox. The feeling one has on first seeing such an animal is one of being caught off-balance, this doubtless comes from the paradox existing between what we think we recognize, a familiar animal, and what it actually is: a kind of chimera. (…)

Thomas Grünfeld’s work falls into a category of art he shares with a number of 1990s artists and for which animals, reflecting man’s own inner nature, raise existential questions. They are the privileged medium of artifice or faking in Xavier Veilhan’s works La Garde Républicaine and Palais, or alternatively an emblem, like Alain Séchas’ cat. They can also be a good basis for experimentation. Such is the case with Wim Delvoye’s taxidermy works, or more radically still, the works of Damien Hirst, who has no compunction in exhibiting a full-size tiger-shark floating in formalin.

With these hybrid animals in his gallery of evolution, Thomas Grünfeld is inviting us to take a look at ourselves, at our human condition, at our unavoidable evolution. (…)

Just like we would walk through a natural history museum, we wander around a strange, almost unknown world. But instead of a diplodocus inside the display cases, we come across an animal as unfamiliar as the misfit. An artificial creation, this beast is hard to get used to. Disturbing, instrumentalized, it conjures up all kinds of fancy ideas and opens the door to a dream world in which our deepest anxieties resurface. Its various animal hybridizations are echoed in current developments in science, with manipulations and various genetic mutations.

^{Line Herbert-Arnaud}

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