F  L  A  U  N  T

“We are like monks in a studio,” Dutch taxidermy artists Ferry van Tongeren and Jaap Sinke state about their solitary artistic practice, which has not really changed much regardless of the recent upending of the world. Despite the vagueness of the future, this artistic partnership will weather the storm. “Our journey is similar to a birds’ in the way that we are always on a quest, a quest for beauty,” says Sinke. Accordingly, capturing that beauty requires constant curiosity, precise attention to detail, and an intuitive sense of distilling your emotions into a piece. 

“In a painting, you can do whatever you want,” continues Sinke, “but if you are working with a real animal, there is no stretch. In the beginning, we often saw the birds as showing them off on a catwalk, similar to models, like drama queens. You could never truly freeze the moment as birds are always in motion. The models on the catwalk know how to move, right? To show off their bodies and clothes. The way we work with these animals is in a way that they are very self-aware of the beauty they are displaying.” 

Taxidermy is tangled in a web of misconceptions. Hollywood has depicted the practice through the lens of Norman Bates’ daytime hobby, many of us have enjoyed a pint beneath a dour looking, mounted elk head, or witnessed garish displays of exotic creatures on the walls of reality TV’s ultra-rich. In actuality, many ethical taxidermy artists are committed to encapsulating a beauty that we are not lucky enough to see on a daily basis. Ethical taxidermists preserve animals that have died of natural causes and transform them into three-dimensional realistic paintings. Sinke and van Tongeren will often receive an animal in its frozen state, and work around preservation and measurement techniques before deciding on a particular pose.

“Getting close to an animal is something special, and when it’s posed in this way it’s even more special,” notes Sinke on the two’s final products. “Apart from animals you have at your house, you are never able to observe the whole anatomy of an animal. When the 17th Century Dutch painters would portray animals from other continents, they would capture all the features in one shot. That is one of the reasons why the poses in these paintings are out of the ordinary—in order to show off as much of their beautiful features as possible, which is what we also do.”            

Van Tongeren explains that his taxidermy journey began in the traditional act of apprenticing. “I was initially drawn to it because of the technique,” he says, “the same curiosity that spikes when you want to figure out how they get a boat into a bottle.” He continues on the journey from then until now—a migration, as it were. “He didn’t want to do that,” he shares of his continuous inquiries to shadow a local taxidermist, “but I had my mind set and kept asking him. In the end, I offered to work for him for free for a whole year just so I could observe what he was doing. He agreed. My hands are where it all started. It made me see that the possibilities were more endless than what I had seen from traditional taxidermists. Once it hit me, I talked to Jaap about it. Jaap was my creative partner for like fifteen years before that, and of course he understood it. At one point we said, ‘Why don’t we try it and see what we can make.’ That is what we did. Our first collection was bought by Damien Hirst.” 

Sinke and van Tongeren have received a long list of international recognition and accolades, but within a thirty minute conversation, you can observe that their appreciation for beauty and animal conservation supersedes any award. There are striking similarities between a ballerina aligning her sauter atop the stage and an uncanny resemblance to reformation of an animal in a pose. “In nature, there is so much romance that we try to infuse into our own work, but it isn’t reminiscent of a fairytale. All the poses we mount the animals in can be found in nature.”

One glimpse at the Darwin, Sinke, and van Tongeren website and you will find a vast range of animals; a pair of Roseate Cockatoos, a crouching tiger spotting a bird of prey, and a gyrfalcon perched on a tiger’s head sculpture. Sinke and van Tongeren note that they get most of their inspiration from visiting various art museums and zoos (Pairi Daiza in Belgium and Zoologico De Chapultepec in Mexico City) when traveling abroad or taking peeks into their antique archive.

Despite various features in publications, the one comment that has stayed with them throughout the years came from an older gentleman at their first gallery showcase.“I think the most striking comment was from an old guy in our first show,” Sinke exclaims, “who was like, ‘I can’t believe two straight guys can make this.’ I really think that was the best compliment. He kept looking at us and at the work, and said, ‘That doesn’t add up.’” 

Whenever Sinke and van Tongeren work on a piece, time simply vanishes as their passion envelopes them. As they project themselves into the future, it’s evident that art as a labor of love is the key ingredient to this spiritual immersion. “We have a long-term ambition to create a monument, but a monument the size of a complete building. A monument for endangered species—a 17th century experience with only very rare and endangered species, to showcase their beauty and show people in one visit how many beautiful animals are endangered at that moment. That is something spectacular that we would really like to do one day.”