Wild and Precious
Rachel Denny: Wild and Precious
Visions West Contemporary
2605 Walnut Street, Denver, CO 80205
September 21-November 4, 2023
Admission: Free
Review by Laura I. Miller
You could call Rachel Denny’s Wild and Precious exhibition at Visions West Contemporary romantic. After all, her textile sculptures include a frolicking fawn, a soaring bird, grazing sheep, and a hopping rabbit. But if you look closer, you’ll see that the sculptures, which take their inspiration from taxidermied animals, have dark undercurrents that stem from man’s conflicted relationship with nature.
A view of Rachel Denny’s exhibition Wild and Precious at Visions West Contemporary. Image by Laura I. Miller.
Denny is perhaps best known for her “domestic trophies,” deer busts made from polyurethane foam and covered in bright, knitted fabric. In this exhibition, she experiments with materials and subject matter—introducing new animals and glass beads—in an attempt to “startle the viewer out of their everyday tasks to look at the layers of the world around us in a new way.” [1]
Rachel Denny, Tree of Life, 2023, polyurethane foam, wood, clay, aluminum, felt, and thread, 38 x 32 x 20 inches. Image by Laura I. Miller.
Take, for example, the beaded polar bear sculpture, one of only two full-body, free-standing pieces in the exhibition. White and blue beads dangle from the bear’s body, representing its fur. The beads add contrast to the softer materials used in the sculptures and enliven them in a way that feels fresh and innovative.
Rachel Denny, Big Thaw, 2023, wood, steel, polyurethane foam, cotton, thread, glass beads, found fishing lures, and silver charms, 47 x 52 x 15 inches. Image by Laura I. Miller.
While you’re marveling at the beauty of the work’s construction, you begin to notice a deeper meaning. Titled Big Thaw, the sculpture makes several references to climate change: The white beads fade to blue, suggesting melting ice, and about a dozen different fishing lures attached to the bear’s underbelly call attention to humans’ negative impact on their environment. It’s a perfect example of Denny’s ability to express a reverence for nature underscored by the ways in which humans cause death and destruction within it.
Rachel Denny, Monarch of the Marsh, 2023, polyurethane foam, wood, aluminum, steel, and cotton thread, 50 x 47 x 42 inches. Image by Laura I. Miller.
Denny’s domestic trophies, in this case Tree of Life and Monarch of the Marsh, operate in a similar fashion to the polar bear—they dazzle you with their beauty while calling attention to the macabre practice of preserving animal heads as hunting trophies and putting them on display. In these pieces, Denny also plays with symbols that traditionally represent the masculine (hunting trophies) and feminine (knit fabrics).
Rachel Denny, Snag, 2023, wood, polyurethane foam, steel, yarn, and thread, 70 x 55 x 22 inches. Image by Laura I. Miller.
She explains in her artist statement that the knit mounts remind her of a “housewife gone mad, knitting her comforting coverlets over the animals no longer with us but still somehow in the living room.” [2] The busts, as well as all the works in the exhibition, tell the story of life and death, followed by rebirth in the hands of the artist.
Rachel Denny, from left to right: Young Buck, Trickster, Alpha, and Summer Sky, polyurethane foam, wood, clay, aluminum, thread, and glass beads, varying sizes. Image by Laura I. Miller.
The exhibition also features several beaded mounts in which brightly-colored strings of glass beads hang from the foam sculptures of animal heads: wolf, coyote, buck, mountain lion, and more. While these works represent, perhaps, an evolution of the knit mounts and align with themes of mortality and reclaiming masculine symbols as feminine, some viewers might find them simple when compared with the other pieces in the exhibition. They’re beautifully crafted but lacking depth, figuratively and literally.
Rachel Denny, Star Grazers, 2023, wood, clay, aluminum, fiber, glass beads, nails, and thread, 54 x 54 x 7 inches. Image by Laura I. Miller.
That being said, the pieces that combine knits and soft fabrics with glass beads, such as Star Grazers, Black Sheep, and Silver Sheep Study, are highlights of the show. By depicting the animals within the context of a landscape, Denny creates a peaceful atmosphere that borders on the sublime. With these works, Denny brings excitement and innovation to landscapes through the lens of admiration and wonder.
Rachel Denny, Snowshoe - Spring (left) and Snowshoe - Summer (right), 2023, wood, aluminum, clay, felt, fiber, and thread, varying sizes. Image by Laura I. Miller.
In addition to the overarching theme exploring humans’ relationship with nature, Wild and Precious also encourages the viewer to consider the transience of life and the limited amount of time available to experience the gifts that nature has to offer. Four circular textile sculptures featuring rabbits throughout the seasons, Snowshoe - Spring, Snowshoe - Summer, Snowshoe - Fall, and Snowshoe - Winter, serve as a reminder of the speed with which time passes.
Rachel Denny, The Young Prince, 2023, wood, aluminum, clay, recycled fibers, yarn, felt, antler, and glass beads, 50 x 48 x 7 inches. Image by Laura I. Miller.
“I was thinking more about how we spend our time and how deeply we can be in this world,” Denny says in her artist statement. [3] It’s a sentiment also reflected in the exhibition’s title, which is a reference to the last line of Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day”: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”
A view of Rachel Denny’s exhibition Wild and Precious at Visions West Contemporary. Image by Laura I. Miller.
Within the exhibition is a call to action for the viewer that’s as relevant as ever: Pay attention to how you spend your time and the impression you leave behind. The exhibition left me with a feeling of gratitude for Denny, who spent so much of her fleeting time making these stunning sculptures so that others could see and reflect on the value of nature and how our actions impact the world around us.
Laura I. Miller (she/her) is a Denver-based writer and editor. Her articles, reviews, and short stories appear widely. She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona.
[1] From Rachel Denny’s artist statement.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
