Idiots.nl is the artistic duo of Afke Golsteijn and Floris Bakker, and their name doesn’t give a clue as to their stunning creations. They work with taxidermy in a unique way, transforming animals into decoration in a way that asks us to question our place as the center of the universe. At least, to me, when I see a sleeping lion dissolve into molten gold, or a bird stuffed into a net adorned with pearls, I think of what we as humans value, and what we as a species treat as expendable. Birds, mammals, reptiles all go extinct every day, casualties of our war on the earth, and more often than not our pollution is the product of our vanity, whether we are mining for the ore we proclaim our status with or pumping oil from the ocean floor to fill the tank of our shiny new ride. Idiots take animals and fill them with precious gems, or grind them into ribbons and lace, or split their skulls, spewing forth flowers and beads for us to wrap around our necks. The jewelery they make is reminiscent of pre-revolution French aristocracy, over the top and extravagant, and trampling on the lives of the beasts who died to adorn them. One necklace in particular strikes me – a strand of pearls with a pendant, a bird caught in a net, crumpled in, its face shrouded in pearls, entitled “Virgin’s Little Bleeding Body.” It reminds me of Marie Antoinette and Elizabeth Bathory all at once, and of the birds that die by the minute, caught in our nets, choking on our plastic. Their death flatters our life, makes our breath more vibrant and our blood course faster. Check out a selection of the Idiots’ work below…
