Bears
With a book and accompanying web site, photographer and documentarian Kent Rogowski presents a collection of teddy bears who have been cut open, emptied out, pushed inside-out, re-stuffed, and stitched back together. This parade of franken-plushies sports uneven seams, rough edges, and caved-in ear-mounds. Some of the little creatures regained their arms and legs in the re-filling process, others didn't. In many cases, their round, plastic noses took on a much larger presence once exposed to the outside. Comments on the pictures run the gamut from "I think these photographs might mean happiness" (Nicholas, a 3rd grade student) to "What kind of inhuman, paranoid, and selfish human being would do such a cruel thing?" (Matthew Stefanski, 14). We don't know where we fall between Nicholas and Matt. But we suspect we'll be creeping back again to gaze in wonder—or trepidation—at Rogowski's ur-bears and their anti-picnic.
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