Craft techniques from the past are proving more popular than ever with a new breed of artists working once again with more traditional mediums.
Photo Credit: Gino Spiro
We interview 29 year old female artist Polly Morgan who has set about championing the art of taxidermy and craftsmanship in fine art today. She is a member of the Guild of Taxidermists and her work is predominantly a mixture of three dimensional still life, using animals as subjects in unusual settings.
Polly’s striking work has been acquired by serious collectors such as David Roberts, Vanessa Branson and Anita Zabludowicz along with celebrities Kate Moss and Sharleen Spiteri.
Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst, the well established curator and partner in the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture Moscow (GCCC), has bought a couple of Polly’s pieces which are on show at Mollie’s ancestral pile Sudely Castle.
Polly has shown at a number of galleries but most importantly exhibited alongside the Chapman brothers, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Julian Schnabel and Cindy Sherman at White Cube gallery.
The skill and craftsmanship demonstrated in her work, makes a stark contrast to the ready-made art so commonplace in modern art galleries and Polly Morgan is rapidly becoming a name to watch among a new generation of British artists.
In Conversation with Polly Morgan
What attracted you to the profession of taxidermy and to use it in your art?
I was deciding which direction my life was going to go in during a period of my life when I was managing a bar in east London. I was trying to write stories and scripts, experimenting with sculpting in clay, making drawings and taking photographs.
I acquired above the bar through the manager’s position, and when furnishing it, I decided I wanted to startle people by having dead birds and rats lying about unassumingly on bookshelves and chairs etc.
I began trying to hunt down some taxidermy pieces and came across some poorly made ones on eBay that weren’t very appealing, their beauty lost.
A friend then suggested that I go and learn the techniques of taxidermy myself, so I contacted George Jamieson, a taxidermist based Edinburgh who’s been doing the job for 40 years. That was in 2004, and he took me through the process using a defrosted pigeon – I was completely mesmerized! So I learnt from him and practiced over the year.
The beauty of decay has always appealed to me but it isn’t very easy to harness – this was a way of faking it. I love animals but most tend to run away when I approach – I was thrilled that taxidermy could give me the access to creatures that, in life, weren’t interested in being looked at or touched.
So you didn’t begin working as a fine artist until 2005, after you learnt your trade. Did you learn taxidermy specifically for your art?
No, it was all very unplanned. After a year of learning taxidermy, I cam upon a corpse and I was asked by a friend with a bar/restaurant to taxidermies some animals for 4 belljars they wanted to fill. With no brief, I used my imagination and came up with something I liked. What was meant to be a small ‘unveiling’ turned into a big party with lots of people from the art world that I knew from when I ran a bar in Hoxton Square.
Bizarrely, Banksy turned up and was an early supporter of my work. Artist and gallerist Wolfe Lenkiewicz then encouraged me to work for his stand at Zoo Art fair and there I had quite a lot of interest a fair amount of sales, so it all kind of happened from there. I had a lucky start.
An interesting aspect about your work is the fact that you are a legal taxidermist in the UK…
I’m only legal in that I don’t break the law by killing protected animals, there is no qualification recognised by the law in the UK that I know of – anyone can do it. I have a disclaimer on my website making it clear that none of my animals are killed for my use.
I get my ‘animals’ from vets or my mother who’s based in the Cotswolds – she finds roadkill for me! I also have friends and contacts with aviaries that help out too. I work mostly with birds as they are easier to source.
While I am not the world’s best taxidermist, I hope the animals beauty is preserved through the poses or settings I put them in, as opposed to them being rendered anatomically accurately.
Can you discuss some of the reactions viewers have had concerning your work? When faced with controversy how do you explain your intentions to an upset viewer?
My disclaimer doesn’t stop everyone from being offended by what I do.
I am generally quite impatient with people who take offence as none of those people have come up with any legitimate arguments or attacks. I’ve even had people saying its irresponsible showing my work to children, but I’ve never met a child who isn’t intrigued by what I do. A child’s natural response is curiosity and that is how they learn things.
Another point is that people think I go round having animals killed for my work. To me that would completely defeat the object of what I do. Why would I kill an animal in order to try to make it look alive again?
I also get told that it’s disrespectful to the animals to cut them open once their dead. Personally, I’m not sentimental in that way. Animals don’t follow the same codes as humans – they often eat their dead. They don’t gather around graves to mourn so I think the question of respecting the corpse of a dead animal is pretty redundant.
How does your work evolve? A great deal of planning must go into each art piece, so what is your though process? Do you begin with a totally formed idea of what you’re going to make or does it evolve as you work?
I should think things through more, as the best taxidermy work is well planned, and it’s good to have an idea of how the animal or bird is going to be positioned while you skin it. My early work was rarely planned for example the Bluetit on the prayer book (entitled ‘To every seed his own body’) was an accident that came from placing down the skin while I built the body and releasing the powerful poignancy it had as just a small back of relaxed bones. As my work has progressed I have actually begun to plan more and actively seek certain animals rather than to just work with what I have.
Can you discuss some of your influences?
My major influences are my friends as I don’t come from an artistic background and don’t have much drawing or art history knowledge. I’ve lived in east London for 10 years and became friends with lots of artists living and working in the area. Artist Paul Fryer has been a major influence on me and has often given me advice on how to best realise my ideas. Mat Collishaw is good at recommending shows he thinks I’d like and aritists I should investigate. Wolfe Lenkeivicz is good at giving me an honest critique of my work. The only artist I have ever consciously referenced is Dali with my melting cutlery.
What can you tell us about your current work? Also, will you be involved with any upcoming exhibits?
I’m in the early stages of planning a new show but I can’t really give any specific details as yet. I will update my website as soon as things become more concrete. I am showing my work amongst other artists in a group show during Frieze week called ‘The Age of Marvellous’ in London. (see details below).
Polly Morgan’s work can be seen in a group exhibition entitled ‘The Age of Marvellous’ at 1 Marylebone Place in London starting on 15 October till 22 October 2009.
