A study of preserved wildlife removed from its original setting, where fish, birds, and animals are transformed into haunting images of stillness, memory, and suspended life.
Artist Statement
In a restaurant lined with mounted fish, birds, and animals, I encountered a collection of creatures preserved in the poses of life. I photographed them as I found them, then removed their surroundings and placed them in an imagined, barren landscape.
Fish hover above dry grass without water. Birds hang in flight beneath a gray sky. A boar and a stag appear as disembodied presences, suspended between a natural history display and a dream. The landscape remains deliberately spare: straw-colored ground, empty sky, and no trees or distractions.
THE STILL WILD explores the uneasy space between preservation and movement, trophy and creature, absence and presence. What began as an ordinary visit became an unexpected study of the lives we attempt to hold still.
— Michael Domino
