Jordan Perme and Christopher Lees of Horrible Adorables craft fiber sculptures that reimagine natural history through a kaleidoscopic lens. Their hand-stitched creatures — part taxidermy, part plush toy, part mythological hybrid — burst with vibrant colors and exaggerated features, turning traditional wildlife displays into playful speculative biology. Each piece begins with needle-felted wool, built up layer by layer into fantastical forms that seem equally likely to inhabit children’s stories or surrealist dioramas. The duo’s meticulous craftsmanship elevates humble materials into astonishingly detailed creations, complete with glass eyes that gleam with uncanny life.
The work playfully subverts museum conventions while celebrating biological diversity. Horned rabbits, polka-dotted foxes, and rainbow-hued birds appear frozen in mid-motion, their poses echoing classic taxidermy mounts yet radiating anarchic energy. Perme and Lees employ a maximalist approach to texture and pattern, combining faux fur, embroidery floss, and found materials into tactile ecosystems. This aesthetic — simultaneously nostalgic and avant-garde — transforms each creature into a walking art installation, blurring boundaries between craft, sculpture, and imaginative play.
Beyond their visual appeal, these sculptures pose provocative questions about human relationships with the natural world. By rendering endangered or extinct species in fantastical variations, Horrible Adorables highlights biodiversity’s fragility while suggesting alternate evolutionary paths. The vibrant palette and exaggerated forms reject realism’s constraints, proposing that wonder might be more important than accuracy in fostering ecological appreciation. In an age of climate anxiety, their work offers a paradoxical comfort — a cabinet of curiosities where imagination becomes a tool for resilience.
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