Science, Style, and Wonder with Divya Anantharaman

About this episode

This episode features Divya Anantharaman discussing the intersection of fashion, natural history, and art through her work in taxidermy.

What happens when fashion, natural history, conservation, and art collide? In this episode of Bird Joy, we're joined by New York City's premier licensed professional taxidermist, Divya Anantharaman, an award-winning artist whose work spans museums, galleries, fashion houses, and natural history institutions. Divya specializes in birds, small mammals, and anatomic anomalies, blending scientific precision with emotional storytelling and symbolic design. Check out her work here [http://www.gothamtaxidermy.com/]. Divya's path wasn't linear. She left the corporate fashion world to pursue her love of natural history, becoming the resident taxidermist at the Morbid Anatomy Museum and building a global following for her taxidermy, skeletal, and entomology displays, as well as jewelry and wearable art rooted in wonder. Divya shares insights from her feature in the documentary Rearranging Skin, her book Stuffed Animals: A Modern Guide to Taxidermy, and her collaborations with institutions, artists, and conservation groups like NYC Bird Alliance [https://nycbirdalliance.org/] and NYC Plover Project [https://nycploverproject.org/]. At its heart, this conversation explores the human-animal…

People in this episode

Hosts: Dexter Patterson, Jason Hall

Guest: Divya Anantharaman

Topics covered

• fashion
• natural history
• conservation
• art
• human-animal relationship
• curiosity
• taxidermy

Keywords

• taxidermy
• fashion
• natural history
• conservation
• art
• birds
• curiosity
• emotional storytelling
• symbolic design

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Morbid Anatomy Museum, NYC Bird Alliance, NYC Plover Project, BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin

Books & works: Rearranging Skin, Stuffed Animals: A Modern Guide to Taxidermy

Places: New York City, Wisconsin

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