Nature is red in tooth and claw. Perhaps this is why animals undertaking sentient activities, as seen in the Walter Potter taxidermy collection featuring ‘The Kitten’s Wedding’ and ‘The Death and Burial of Cock Robin’ recently bought by Damien Hirst, can seem so macabre. The animal tableaux in Ericalcaine’s art are very different to the Walter Potter collection in content and emotion. They don’t simply replicate worldly rites of passage; their endeavours are tragically human. Bats cower in fear behind furniture; Baboons plot ethnic atrocities; an Elephant becomes so absorbed in his books he fails to notice his house aflame; and a grizzly bear’s experiments with his crude flying machine are inevitably anti-climactic. Drawn in the style of intricate Victorian children’s illustrations, the scenes are consistently endearing, echoing the moral aspect of their figurative influence. Ericalcaine hails from Italy, and (his/her) work parallels the pertinent, yet gentle, pieces by her/his often collaborator, Blu.
