Dead Animal Hats

James Faulkner is getting press lately, though I think it may be for simply the shock value in the back story of how he got into hat making. His first hat was made from roadkill, literally a bird he found on the side of the road. He was broke, had to make a hat, and so used materials at hand. I can't attest for the quality of the hats, and he said himself that he is using more accessible materials; things with less gross out factors. Still, I thought about it as I drove through rural Iowa, where there are dead animals littering the road sides all along my drive. I had thought about what I might do as a reaction to seeing these poor animals on the side of the road, and a few days later heard about these hats. What a fitting response I thought.

Brian Dettmer

I've been paying attention to Brian Dettmer's work for a while. He takes old found books, especially dictionaries and encyclopedias of different sorts, and alters them. His cutting of the pages leaves select images and text that create new visual spaces within the structure of the original book. The re-purposing of old obsolete materials isn't anything new, but his way of working is quite unique. It reminds me of A Humument by Tom Phillips. Same end result though Dettmer's work is in the round. It makes me think about how we use books and text to communicate, the layout of systems like that, and how someone can adapt that linear structure to new ends.

Brian Dettmer's Website

Humument Website