Interview: Polly Morgan

August 23rd, 2010

Polly Morgan, a London-based taxidermy artist who turns deceased fowls into sublime sculptural pieces, has some rather high-profile supporters (Bansky, Kate Moss, and Courtney Love, just to name a few). Her solo show, Psychopomps – named after mythical creatures that carry souls into the afterlife – is currently on display at Haunch of Venison in London. These once majestic flights of fancy are suspended in mid-air, capturing life even after death. Come October, Morgan is set to participate at an All Visual Arts exhibition in London’s famous 33 Portland Place, where you might see a murder of crows sculpted into a bouquet of hyacinths.

The Block: I read you grew up in the countryside. Farm animals must have had an impact on you?

Polly Morgan: I suppose they had an insidious effect on me. They just used to annoy me when I was young – competitors for my parents’ time and money. I thoroughly missed them when I came to live in London, and now I crave animal companionship.

TB: Did you go to art school?

PM: I didn’t go to art school. I learned taxidermy from a taxidermist in Scotland – a day’s lesson. Then I got cracking on my own stuff and would visit him every few months for a critique.

TB: What attracted you to taxidermy?

PM: It’s an illusion: a three-dimensional magic trick that doesn’t fade. What’s not to like?

TB: Can you tell us a bit about the Guild of Taxidermists? (Which you’re a member of.)

PM: It’s just a group of people who are either practicing taxidermy or have an interest in it. It’s a way of keeping in touch and sharing information. I’m not very involved with their meetings and competitions but it’s good to have contact with other people who collect dead animals; it has its uses.

TB: Your Facebook fan-page quote, “I hate death as much as ever.” Please explain.

PM: It must be a quote taken from a previous interview. I’m not sure what the context was. It’s probably just because people often ask about my attitude to death and I don’t see it as being any different to the next person’s; I hate it as much as I’ve ever done.

TB: What’s the most difficult animal you’ve worked with?

PM: It’s not so much the animal; it’s more the condition the body is in. The hardest specimens are the ones that have excessive damage to the skin or have started to rot and the feathers are falling out.

TB: How do you come across the deceased animals? Has anyone ever commissioned you to taxidermy his or her beloved pet?

PM: No. I don’t work to commission and would never do someone’s pet. People donate dead animals to me all the time: aviary owners, people who find dead animals on the side of the road, cats bring them in, or birds that fly into windows.

TB: Your studio must look like a museum of natural history. What’s the weirdest animal you’ve worked with?

PM: It doesn’t at all actually! People are often surprised by how little taxidermy there is in there. Things tend to be prepared in the studio and the larger work is assembled elsewhere. Nothing stays for very long. Most things are hidden away in the freezer. I work with fairly normal animals, mostly birds. I have worked on white-backed vultures, which are fairly amazing looking birds.

TB: What animal are you dying (no pun intended) to work with?

PM: The answer to that question depends on what I am making next. Most recently I wanted pigeons and crows or bright orange canaries. I’d love some hornbills next, so I can make what looks like a bouquet of lilies out of their heads.

TB: Your piece, Flight of Fancy (Nuthatch) – where the bird is lying in a glass crystal jewellery box – reminds me of Snow White. Do you have source of inspiration for your pieces?

PM: Not that I am aware of. I have been reading about flying machine inventors recently and have been inspired by the kind of people who strap balloons to their lawn chairs and drift away.

TB: What mediums do you work with? For example, your Still Birth series (which is amazing by the way), what are the balloons made of and how are they suspended within the bell jar?

PM: They are cast in resin and painted up to look like balloons. The “string” is in fact piano wire painted white and rooted, through the chick, into the wooden base. I work with all kinds of mediums, wood, metal, resin being the most frequent.

TB: I read that you were first spotted by Banksy. Can you tell us about this encounter?

PM: Someone just came up to me and asked about my work and how much I sold it for. This was at Bistrotheque when I unveiled my first ever work. I didn’t consider myself an artist at this point and thought I was doing a favour for a friend! I had no idea who he was at the time; I thought he was just a curious punter. Nothing came of it until three months later when I showed a piece at the Zoo Art Fair and I bumped into him coincidentally. He asked me to put some work into Santa’s Ghetto, a show he put on at Christmas, I agreed and that was that. He didn’t exactly discover me; he was one of my early supporters though.

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