10 hours ago
Animal poo painting competition aimed at normalising faeces
Tasmanian museum owner Karin Koch created the world's first animal poo painting competition because she's passionate about destigmatising faeces, but also to have fun.
Ms Koch is the creator and owner of Pooseum, a primarily science museum dedicated to dung.
In 2024, she invited artists to submit works made with animal poo in her inaugural competition called the Poo-tastic Tasmanian Paint Off, with a $2,000 prize on offer for the winner.
After a successful first year, the contest returns, this year asking artists to paint "expressive portraits" made with animal poo.
A commissioned portrait of former politician, and environmentalist, Bob Brown, painted with pademelon droppings provides inspiration for aspiring poo artists.
Ms Koch said the death of a close friend to bowel cancer, who had noticed blood in his stools but kept the information secret for two years, inspired her to open the museum.
She initially planned a museum dedicated to human faeces but, after moving from mainland Australia to Tasmania, her focused shifted to animal poo.
"For thousands of years, animal faeces have been used in various ways, particularly in rural regions across Asia and Africa," Ms Koch said.
Ms Koch has commissioned paintings and sculptures made using animal dung to hang on the walls of the Pooseum.
She has sourced artworks and sculptures from as far as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
A "highly detailed" artwork in cow dung and gold leaf by German artist Werner Härtl hangs on the wall of Pooseum.
The artist began to create artworks from diluted dung when employed as a farm worker in 2012 and described it as an "extremely versatile" product.
Artist Karen Lyttle had never created an artwork from animal poo prior to winning the inaugural poo-painting competition in 2024.
Her piece, named Crap Wallpaper, shows three plump pademelons, their intestinal tracts and, appropriately, their droppings.
"The whole pattern is based on eating and defecating," Lyttle said.
Lyttle combined the grass-textured and cylindrical droppings of pademelons with PVA glue and water to create her paint.
"It was a real learning curve … I tried different mixtures with it, like oil and all sorts of things," she said.
Lyttle embraced the product's versatility and said working with pademelon poo quickly felt "totally natural".
"The nutrients [from poo] go back into the ground … to help Australian farmlands … it's the whole cycle of life."
This year's rules are stricter, and a theme has been introduced for the competition, which is open to Tasmanian-based artists only.
Ms Koch said her expectations are "much higher" after a successful first year.
In the 2024 competition there was no theme, but for the 2025 competition, Ms Koch said she selected portraiture as she loved painting portraits herself.
Ahead of the competition, she commissioned a large portrait from Tasmanian-based portrait artist Ewen Welsh, who selected the person to be depicted.
Welsh approached Bob Brown through Dr Brown's partner, Paul Thomas.
According to Mr Welsh, the former politician, and environmentalist, "straight away said yes", but asked Welsh to wait to share the portrait until after the latest federal election.
"Every stage I sent [him] an email and said, 'Is this OK? Do I have your permission?'" Welsh said.
Ms Koch said she was "extremely proud" to display the portrait of Bob Brown.
She is excited to see submissions for this year's competition.
"I've always enjoyed doing things that haven't been done before," Ms Koch said.
"Though primarily a science museum, the Pooseum balances education with humour, proving that even something as gross and messy as faeces can be a fascinating subject for learning."
