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A multimedia sculpture of a decomposing deer surrounded by moss. The deer lies on its side in a fetal position with its legs curled in front of it and its ribcage exposed, showing the dark red flesh and ribs inside. Its skull is angular and off-white, with rows of uneven teeth and empty eye sockets. A small yellow bird is perched on one of the antlers. The deer lies on a bed of green moss, which crawls up into the interior of the ribcage, the floor of which is covered by thick vegetation and grasses, some of which is painted with glitter and soft pastels of pink, blue, and purple. This mossy world inside the ribcage is scattered with sparkling iridescent stones and small fairy lights that are hidden among the vegetation. Small shiny beads hang from the “ceiling” of the ribcage on clear strings, and are lit by the lights inside.

...And God taketh away

Catherine Ramsey

Multimedia sculpture

Undergraduate
What instills fear in us, what disgusts us, what makes us want to avert our eyes; this is precisely what I wanted to confront with this piece. Death and decay naturally gives way to new life, and yet the process of decaying is gruesome, not something most want to confront. We paint the faces of our dead and bury them in their finest clothes and fill them with embalming fluid so that we may slow this process. By adorning this deteriorating carcass with elements of a whimsical and fantastic world, I invite viewers to envelop themselves in this wonderful little fantasy, while simultaneously inviting them to brush up against death itself. The deer decomposes curled in an almost fetal position as the moss curls around its body, feeding off of its flesh. The world growing within its abdomen is its rebirth.