David Altmejd, representing Canada, has been known mostly for his recurrent werewolf motif: heads of fanged changelings sprouting crystals and mirrors and chains, as if decaying or exploding, which explores our fear of our animal instincts.
For the Canadian pavilion, the werewolves are there but they are starting to disappear — eaten by birds. Altmejd (pronounced AWLT-mayde) said he created the space to look something like an aviary partly so he could completely fill the pavilion, as birds would fill an aviary. They are everywhere, taxidermied and sculptured, along with the occasional raccoon or squirrel lurking behind a pillar. The exhibition is so heavily mirrored that it feels as if you are walking around inside a disco ball and viewers come close to walking into the walls. (The artist says that people have smacked into the glass windows on their way out, apparently thinking the danger is behind them.)The elaborate installation, which arrived in Venice in 55 crates from his studio in Long Island City, Queens, took Mr. Altmejd two and a half weeks to put together. And where did he come across all the taxidermied birds? eBay, of course.
