Zoe Leonard, Artist

Trophies , 1990

In Zoe Leonard's work, museum and other displays are not carriers of objective, factual information but rather are sites through which to divine both radical singularities and the frameworks created to categorize and control them. In Trophies, Leonard foregrounds how hunting trophies—talismans of man's power over nature—can also be seen as so many portraits of once-living beings. Photographed so as to emphasize the strangely affective faces of these gutted and stuffed animals, the images raise questions about how we determine value and how we act on those determinations.