Collecting Oddities
My partner and I share a love of collecting strange and unusual items and have scoured Ontario and afar in search of pieces to add to our collection. We frequent shops that sell antiques and oddities, with our favourite being Cabinet of Curiosities in Dundas, Ontario. We have attended freak shows in Toronto and Hamilton that normally feature vendors and artists who sell macabre goods and morbid creations.
This past fall we attended the Detroit Oddities & Curiosities Expo, which showcased taxidermy, preserved specimens, and all types of artworks made with insects, skulls and bones, and other creepy things. When we were in New York a couple of years ago, we made a trip to the East Village in Manhattan to visit Obscura Antiques & Oddities, which was featured in the TV series Oddities. We left obscura with a beautifully framed memento mori art piece, unlike any we had seen back home. Sadly, Obscura closed its doors at the end of 2019, so it is unlikely that we will have the opportunity to visit again.
Disclaimer: Although we buy pieces that consist of parts of dead animals, we make sure that they are ethically sourced. All taxidermy that we have purchased are antique mounts in which the animals were killed decades ago. We do not support businesses that kill animals in order to sell their bodies for profit. We are animal lovers; we have four cats and two dogs and try to help ailing wild animals whenever we can. When we bring home an animal or animal part, we feel that we are honouring its life by caring for it in our home.
