Zo Nicole Nielsen – Artist Statement

As a chronically ill person whose survival depends on continuous medical intervention, I live
in a body that was not built to endure. My existence is not evidence of my strength but of
circumstance: I was born human, a species deemed worth saving. I only work with animals that have
died from natural causes, stillbirths, maternal rejection, illness, veterinary administered euthanasia,
or from accidents such as roadkill. This shapes a profound kinship with the animals I preserve, bodies
that, like mine, were too vulnerable to survive on their own. The tension between human-animal
privilege and non-human-animal vulnerability underpins my practice, which positions taxidermy as a
quiet act of grief.

I often incorporate lace, satin, and flowers to signal a shift toward gentler, empathetic
methods, aligning with the growing presence of women practitioners who resist the masculine legacy
of domination and violence in taxidermy. By leaving visible seams, staging rituals of replenishment,
and maintaining the works over time, I frame taxidermy as both art and medicine: an ethic of care
made tangible. I cast carcasses and bones, creating forms that preserve anatomical presence even
when the hide is absent. These sculptures, along with my printmaking and paintings balance fragility
and weight, absence and permanence. They expand the language of taxidermy into material studies of
endurance and loss, extending the animal’s afterlife through form.