"I guess I'm quite detached from dead bodies."

October 25, 2016 11:14 PM

Australian writer Marise Williams' essay "Mourning Half Begun" begins with "I’m thinking of having my cat stuffed when she dies,"^† proceeds through Barthes, Sontag and the OED and arrives at the taxidermy work of artist Julia deVille.

Melbourne-based artist, jeweller and taxidermist, Julia deVille keeps the memento mori motif alive. Her disce mori motto, ‘learn to die’, inspires her fascination with the dead, the skulls, bones and skin of once living animals and birds, as ornamental keepsakes, mourning jewellery and fashion accessories. Her leatherwork in gloves, spats and boots reminds us that our everyday shoes and handbags are also treated animal carcasses, no different to a skunk stole or fox tail belt. While this preoccupation with animal pelts as decorative pieces, taxidermy as art materials and jewellery, may seem a paradox for a committed vegetarian, there is an ethical confluence in her practice. DeVille’s work honours the animal and its death no matter how insignificant.

Guardian video: Julia de Ville's Phantasmagoria at Adelaide Biennial 2014
i-D interview: "death and holograms: inside the world of julia deville"
Sophie Gannon Gallery
Jan Murphy Gallery
Instagram
Facebook

^†As an in memoriam postscript to “Mourning Half Begun,” Mitzy, whose real name was Ella, passed away in November 2012. She was cremated, not stuffed. Ella’s ashes are kept in a gold, heart-shaped urn on the mantelpiece.

posted by Johnny Wallflower (5 comments total)

Johnny Wallflower: gently reminding Metafilter that We're Going to Die, all October 2016.
posted by Gordafarin at 12:21 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

I once spent a week’s holiday at a house in Sweden whose owners had a trio of stuffed kittens with black stitched Xs for eyes on macabre display at the top of a staircase. I found it a tad disconcerting: I’d not personally choose to remember a deceased pet in this way. For me, once the light has gone out, what remains is only a poor semblance of the living being that was.
posted by misteraitch at 1:14 AM on October 26, 2016

I once had an employee in Tasmania who asked his dad to look after his ferret while he was holidaying on the mainland, forgetting that his father was both an impulsive man and an amateur taxidermist.
posted by Thella at 2:12 AM on October 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

(juliadeville.com appears to be down this weekend in preparation for the Monday opening of the overhauled site)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:58 PM on October 29, 2016

The shiny new JdV website is open for business.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:30 PM on November 14, 2016