The following photo-packed article is about the third annual rogue taxidermy contest held at Union Hall club in Brooklyn, New York on November 2, 2007.  This manuscript was produced by Dr. Eriko N. Bond, an art critic and author in New York City, as told by Takeshi Yamada. All the photographs featured here were taken by Takeshi Yamada and Diane M. Taros.

TAKESHI YAMADA

AT

ROGUE TAXIDERMY CONTEST

UNION HALL, BROOKLYN, 2007

Part 3

Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York resident Takeshi Yamada won the Grand Champion title in last year’s rogue taxidermy contest at Union Hall. Therefore he was presented as the last contestant this year. His colorful and dynamic personality and his breath-taking freak sideshow taxidermy artworks attracted cheers.

Takeshi Yamada talked about the Japanese mythology of the horseshoe crab and showed his warrior mask made from the creature.

Yamada’s 4-foot long prehistoric giant horseshoe crab, a crypto-zoological taxidermy creation.

Yamada talked about the traditional religious practice of producing mummified mermaids in Asian countries and showed his version of a six-foot long mummified mermaid (gaff).  Sea Rabbit (“Seara”) quietly sits on the chair on the far right. 

This year’s Champion title went to this humorous antique Victorian taxidermy artwork from Obscura Antiques & Oddities.  Two arctic mice are mounted as tiny polar bears in the shadow box.

Film presentation: Save the Tasmanian Devil. Money was collected at the auditorium to support medical research and the breeding program of this extremely rare creature in Tasmania.

Snapshots

Here are selected close-up photographs of the freak and creative taxidermy artworks displayed that night that made the evening truly memorable.

The remarkable rogue taxidermy artworks gathered that night.

(Left-to-right) Miss Secret Science Club, Takeshi Yamada, Seara (the Sea Rabbit), and Dorian Devins posed for the paparazzi after the spectacular rogue taxidermy contest.

Media Coverage:

New York Magazine:

http://nymag.com/daily/food/2007/11/union_halls_nutso_taxidermy_co_1.html#gs-int

New York Magazine:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/11/hipsters_marvel_at_the_kind_of.html

Gothamist:

http://gothamist.com/2007/11/05/pictures_of_the.php

75 photos and photo journalism by istolethetv:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/istolethetv/sets/72157602889012789/

http://www.istolethe.tv/blahblahblah/2007/11/taxidermy-taxider-you.html

48 photos by Robert Marbury

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mochampez/sets/72157602919737498/

Morbidanatomy:

http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2007/11/carnivorous-nights-taxidermy-contest.html

Reference:

Takeshi Yamada’s article about the rogue taxidermy contest at Union Hall in 2006

http://www.sideshowworld.com/TYGreatATaxidermy.html

Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists:

http://www.roguetaxidermy.com/

Union Hall:

www.unionhallny.com

Takeshi Yamada:

http://www.sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

http://www.roguetaxidermy.com/members_detail.php?id=528

http://horseshoecrab.org/poem/feature/takeshi.html

Nate Hill

http://www.roguetaxidermy.com/members_detail.php?id=142

http://www.stoproadkill.org/

Robert Marbury:

www.urbanbeast.com               

www.beastblender.com

http://www.roguetaxidermy.com/members_detail.php?id=82

December 27, 2007 - January 2, 2008 issue 639, TimeOutNew York magazine, “Report card ’07. We Grade the year in art and culture: 100 best things we ate (and drank) this year”

Takeshi Yamada was featured in the page 57 and 58. Here is from the page 57:

…hobby that skeeves us out
In June, the new Ripley’s Odditorium in Times Square debuted a record number of shrunken heads (24 comely craniums in all). In November, Park Slope’s Union Hall hosted Secret Science Club’s third annual Carnivorous Nights taxidermy contest. Earlier this month, Bed-Stuy artist Nate Hill led the Chinatown Taxidermy Garbage Tour, a safari of deceased critters along Canal Street. And all year long, cryptozoologist Takeshi Yamada has been showing off stuffed fauna in “Museum of World Wonders” at the Coney Island branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Clearly it’s not just psychotic pet owners who want their loved ones preserved for posterity.

Blogs:

blog post (SunriseNYC999) on Takeshi Yamada:

blog post on Takeshi Yamada and his “giant trilobite” was featured in the following website dated December 18, 2007

http://triloblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/tribe-of-trilobite.html

 END 

Copyright by Takeshi Yamada, November 2007, Revised in January 2008. All rights reserved.

Museum of World Wonders in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. 

E-mail: yamada108@aol.com

http://www.sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

Special Thanks to Dr. Eriko N. Bond, Lauren D. Travis, and Maremi Kakushina.

Also special thanks to Kris Roth (Senior Proofreader)  

All stories are the property of Sideshow World & their respective authors.  Any republication in part or in whole is strictly prohibited.  For more information please contact us here.