The World Oddities Expo: wonderfully weird and deletcably disturbing for local vendors
Large doll head by WOE
“Weirdo,” an insult that gets thrown around like a frisbee on playgrounds and forums. Can people not enjoy their unique crafts, interests, and hobbies without being labeled? The World Oddities Expo offers an unjudgmental, traveling show where people can show off what gets an unfortunate name. Even when asked how it feels to have the weight of the word ‘oddities’ stapled to their forehead at these traveling shows, the response from a vendor was illuminating: “Well, it is odd.” Oh.
Evolving from niche internet forums to an overcapacity convention room at the Crown Center, those who deal in strange treasures and corpses have found their home – or at least a place to make a pretty penny. The World Oddities Expo (WOE) travels across the country, this time providing a location for Kansas City’s alternative artists to display their work February 14-15. The WOE website promises, “a peculiar paradise where weird thrives! We pride ourselves on being an all-inclusive artisan and small business fueled mega-convention.”
Mega seemed to be the theme as waves of piercings, dyed hair, and unassuming parents taking their overjoyed kids flooded the booths and halls. Greeting this crowd was an 8-foot-tall, decrepit baby doll head. The single eye protruding from the skull, peering into the arriving guests’ souls, seemed to give a succinct description of what is to be experienced in the expo. Pandora’s box is open, and you can purchase whatever comes screaming out.
Some people like to believe ‘all animals go to heaven’, but that has been proven inaccurate; all animals seem to be dosed with chemicals and stuffed here at the end of their lives. The bizarre bazaar introduces the black beady eyes of a buck, guarding a booth overflowing with framed butterflies and dried pufferfish carcasses. As wall-to-wall traffic slowly leads you through booth after booth of taxidermy, bones, and demented crafts (can I offer you epoxy tongues, severed and mounted?).
Produces Of The Wild booth
The patrons of these dead wares are standing at the crossroads of hunting, art, and crafts. “We have always done a lot of hunting, and we live on a farm. We just started trying to use every part of the animal, and finding creative ways to do that,” explains Jonathan, of Skin & Bones. Coyotes, foxes, and mink furs all sourced just outside of Branson by the man sporting a bright purple zoot suit. “There’s not a whole lot of places where I get the chance to wear this suit.” And somehow it fit perfectly among the lavish hides surrounding him.
Jonathan with Skin & Bones
For some, the curiosity was always instilled, “My dad was a big hunter. He would bring me a bag of dead birds because I wanted to dissect them. I’d go deer hunting with him, he’d shoot the deer, then I’d clean it,” explained the now full-time curator of the dead, Caroline Elise.
Now, Elise finds herself bonding with her partner in crime, her daughter, scavenging their farm in northwest Missouri for anything dead. After scouring the web for tips and tricks to establish themselves in the new hobby, they settled for flesh-eating beetles.
As gothic and macabre as it sounds, the use of dermestid beetles for bone cleaning is a common practice in the taxidermy world. “All I have to do is feed them, and they’re good to go,” explains Elise, who runs Too Flys Oddities.
Paddlefish bones by Too Flys Oddities
Make no bones about it: for these artists and vendors, beauty lies in what’s inside.
Look beyond what is considered by some as a prop for Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory – learn to love wet specimens. The formalin, alcohol, and corpse snow globe features anything you can dream of: A half-decayed kitten head, a piglet, or a piebald ball python filling every inch of the preserved ‘crystal ball’. Have no worries, all animals were previously deceased – sourced from a widespread online presence.
Whimsical Dearest booth
The artist behind Whimsical Dearest not only uses wet specimens to honor the animal after it’s passed, but also focuses on the presentation.
She explains, “I got on the oddities groups on Facebook and saw what you could do artistically with wet specimens. I really love antiques, so I started to incorporate antiques with the wet specimens.”
Snake wet specimen by Whimsical Dearest
Ornate brass lamp bases are as much the purpose as are the perfectly preserved creatures they support. What began with a dead chipmunk brought home by the artist’s cat has turned into the opening to a ‘lively’ community, despite the usual medium of art.
Need something portable? Try a tasteful pairing of raccoon jawbone and water buffalo bone beads from OutLaws Jewelry. A craft to pass the time has now fully transformed into a life-altering creative path- “I never, ever thought I’d be doing this,” explains creator Andrea Laws.
OutLaws Jewlery Booth
Looking for something more lively? New-age belly dancers, butterfly pinning instructions, and taxidermy classes are sprinkled throughout the event, allowing anyone to enter a world of curiosity. A home for the alternative performance in front of like-minded individuals – as long as that mind is weird.
Taxidermy squirrel by Spoddities KC
The most eye-catching of all the displays, an ode to sex workers through stuffed rodentia. The taxidermy stripper-rodents, with an appropriate amount of nipple tassels for the mammal, were in the dozens at artist Kara Gutierrez’s booth.
Art by Spoddities KC
Maybe you need something that makes a statement and grabs people’s attention? A cigar-wielding, baseball cap-wearing vagina will surely do the trick.
Kat Guiteriez seems to have mastered it all, and to top it off, she proudly displays her tattoo work, areola tattoos, designed for breast cancer survivors.
Of all the twisted, demented horrors that appear in these carpeted halls, there is one item that is sure to stay with any unfortunate soul who lays their gaze upon it. The Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX ring. Sold by a knife salesman. The World Oddities Expo has it all.
Eagles Super Bowl ring sold by Amazing Greg
