Roadkill Toys: Cuddly, European-style gore!
Filed under: Travel
A few years back, in the hazy, mythical days of 2004, my wife and I took a trip to Eastern Europe. The dollar was strong then, and an underpaid English instructor and his bookstore-staffer girlfriend could travel like royalty on the other side of the former Iron curtain. We wandered all over, reveling in the grotesque history of the area and its rich, potato-based cuisine. Finally, we drifted into Brno, eager to see the city's famed freeze-dried Capuchin monks. Unfortunately, the monastery was closed for the winter, but we vowed that someday, somehow, we would venture back and revel in the wonder of dead, shriveled monks.
About a year after we came back to the U.S., Gelitin, a Vienna-based art collective, unveiled what may be the coolest public art project since England's Cerne Abbas chalk sculpture. Gelitin's "Rabbit" is a 200-foot long pink bunny that is sprawled across a hill in Italy's Piedmont region. Filled with straw, the stuffed animal is made of soft cloth and features "guts" that are artfully strewn around it. Visitors are encouraged to crawl all over the bunny, reveling in its weird texture and grotesque design.
"Rabbit" is scheduled to stay in place until 2025; presumably, the dollar will deflate sometime between now and then. In the meantime, however, I've got another source for my dead stuffed animal fixation. An English company, Roadkill Toys, has unveiled "Grind," a bunny doll that is designed to look and feel like a piece of street pizza. Filled with "micro-bead" stuffing, its guts are designed to have realistic weight and "squidgyness." It comes complete with a recycled-paper "toe tag," a plastic "body bag," and a handy zipper across its belly, in case you want to stow the guts inside the carcass. If you don't care for rabbits, there's also "Twitch," a squashed raccoon.
At £25 a pop, Roadkill's toys aren't cheap, but they're still a lot less expensive than a plane ticket to Italy. As for the Capuchin monks, I guess I'll just have to make do with staring at beef jerky.
Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. He's tried hanging out in New York graveyards, but it just isn't the same. Bring on the Capuchin monks!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-11-2008 @ 3:05PM
Adam Morrigan said...
Hmmm "street pizza." into cuddly toys. You know there is nothing quite like trivialising a pointless death. 35,000,000 Native Americans lay testament to that and as a point of reference, trivia is apparently an American cultural paradigm. "Holly Wood and Trivialised death that is, just to clarify." Personally I turn the real "street Pizza" into Art and like to hang the "Real Thing" on my walls with a price tag too match. Giving value to something we consider valueless. Maybe, I think, what would be more important for us all to consider, is our relationship with the thing before condemn it to the trivia bin. Socio-economic-environmental responsibility would that not be a triumph? Best wishes Ad
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5-11-2008 @ 3:13PM
Bruce Watson said...
You know, I always find it amusing when Europeans accuse Americans of trivializing death and massacre. In fact, it's particularly interesting to hear people from the United Kingdom citing the deaths of native Americans as a measure of America's cultural callousness. Here are two suggestions, Adam:
1. Look up the word "satire." Take another look at the roadkill toys. Adjust shortsighted overreaction accordingly.
2. Take a long, hard look at England's treatment of the Irish, Scottish, Indian, African, Native American (!) populations. Adjust your self-righteous anti-American rhetoric accordingly.
While I admire the zen humor of your art, I am irritated and, frankly, bored by your America bashing. When I lived in the UK, I was impressed by its attempts to differentiate itself from the smugly self-obsessed rhetoric of the rest of Europe. I'm sad to see that the country is changing so drastically.
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