Jane Gennaro

Making art for me is about paying my respects to nature.  In this work I collected dead rats (several from the New York subway), mice and chipmunks, and preserved their bodies in jars of alcohol. Caught off guard, suspended in moments of pure aliveness, these preserved rodents lighten over time, and look more like angels than critters we have grown comfortable dismissing as disgusting vermin. How dare we…?

As an exaltation of the life of small creatures, I have cleaned and preserved the bones of mice, lacing together the tiniest of bones with transparent thread. I then mounted the strands to overlapping metal frames so that the bones would maintain movement, while belonging to a three dimensional body (like when they were alive).