Brooklyn-based artist Kate Clark's sculptures demand something from you. From a distance, they look like taxidermy specimens of various animals from all over the world -- and they are.
They're made with real (and ethically sourced) animal hides wrapped around a clay form, but they have something else, too, something you can only see when you look at them head-on.
The human faces are sculpted in clay using a live model as reference, and then the facial skin from the animal hide is cut, stitched, and pinned in place, creating an eerie blend of the human and the animal.
Clark says she tries to preserve as much of the natural patterning as possible. Horns and ears are attached later, and rubber eyes complete the face -- giving them unnerving, unblinking stares.
"I leave as much fur and patterning as I can, yet I want the human features to be clear and the skin to read as oily and porous, reflecting our skin," Clark explains.
"The process of sculpting the face takes months: I work until the transition of human/animal is smooth, striving for a balance of familiar yet unfamiliar, beautiful yet unnerving, lifelike and believable yet clearly constructed."
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