cassandra smith..

Faythe Levine recently brought my forever wandering attention to Milwaukee based artist Cassandra Smith. As you can see form these images, I stopped in my tracks. Cassandra uses Taxidermy and snack cakes in a decidedly unexpected way. Over email Cassandra explained her thoughts on her work and the ideas behind it:

"The taxidermy is sourced from e-bayor from people who were looking to get rid of it.  I try to get it"used" for moral reasons, it makes it easier on my conscience. Thefish, however, are plastic because I wanted uniform repetition, butit's sort of the same concept because they are plastic fish meant to bedisplayed on your wall in place of actual taxidermy. With the animalpieces I was thinking about the combination of masculine and feminineversions of craft, and how they might be represented together.  I alsorealized that traditional craft, taxidermy and art are all just waysfor us to display our accomplishments and talents to other people. Ona simple level, these pieces are also about pattern and form and theway that organic and geometric shapes and patterns play off of oneanother. For the snack pieces Idecided to ignore their edibility and amplify their attractiveness bycovering them in sequins and turning them into wall patterns. This waythey are no longer disposable or forgettable. I wanted to make themsimultaneously more attractive and less obtainable."Besides keeping herself busy with her work, Cassandra is also co owner of The Armoury Gallery.