By Tim Binnall
The bizarre 'creature carcass' found on a beach in Georgia earlier this year has been revealed to be the work of an artist known for creating viral hoaxes. The strange 'remains' made headlines around the world back in March when video of the oddity surfaced online. While some speculated that the 'beast' could have been the region's resident Nessie-like sea monster known as the Altamaha-ha, marine biologists said that it was probably a normal creature that looked exotic due to the ravages of decomposition and others argued that it was an outright hoax orchestrated by local residents to increase tourism to the area.
While that specific scenario is not exactly what occurred, it has now been learned that, indeed, the 'creature' was a fake. In a profile by Vice, an artist out of New York City named 'Zardulu' says that she was the one responsible for crafting the creepy carcass out of a taxidermied shark and paper mache. The purpose of the piece, she explained, was to "breathe some new life" into the legend of the Altamaha-ha and "incorporate it into my larger narrative." The 'carcass' was not the first time Zardulu has found success in fabricating scenes that go viral as she is responsible for videos of a three-eyed catfish and a raccoon riding an alligator which also spread like wildfire online.
Lest one have their doubts about the artist's claim, the Altamaha-ha 'carcass' will be on display next month at a showcase of her work at a New York City gallery. There's also a chance that the showing will shed light on other potential hoaxes that were produced by Zardulu as she teased that "you may see several pieces you had yet to know were mine." With that in mind, considering the number of strange and unusual videos we've seen in the past few years, we'd be lying if we said that we weren't a little worried about the prospect of learning that some fantastic footage was actually just the product of the remarkably creative artist.