From ‘Swarm,’ 2004
 
Like many English children, Tessa Farmer grew up with an elaborate mythology of fairies, but her own contemporary fairy art is far from the sweetness of girlhood tales. Her elaborate taxidermy displays depict fairies as brutal, savage little creatures, an evil species that seeks to dominate and/or destroy other wildlife. Her displays show violence, death and rot, but it’s the sculptures’ ability to tell wicked little stories that truly draws you in. The description of her 2007 work, “The Desecration of the Swallow:”

Flies were laying eggs on the swallow, and their maggots consuming it, until the fairies snatched it from them and made it fly again by harnessing winged insets to its body.Now it has become a ship in their fleet, as well as a meal.

Her work is dynamic, detailed and very busy, inspiring apt comparisons to Hieronymus Bosch. Her short animated piece below, “Nest of the Skeletons,” reminds me of Ladislas Starevich’s dead bug puppet cartoons—and I mean that in the best way possible. It’s difficult to up the creepy factor on insect taxidermy, but Farmer manages it by contaminating our very childhood dreams. This isn’t the Tinkerbell our parents told us about.
 

From ‘Swarm,’ 2004
 

From ‘Swarm,’ 2004
 

From ‘Parade of the Captive Hedgehog,’ 2006
 

From ‘The Desecration of the Swallow,” 2007
 

From ‘The Desecration of the Swallow,” 2007

From ‘Little Savages,” 2007
 

From ‘Little Savages,” 2007
 

From ‘Little Savages,” 2007