As I read directly from The Haunch of Venison's exhibition catalogue: "All taxidermied animals are either road casualties or have been donated to the artist by pet owners and vets after natural or unpreventable death" I began to realise why this towering gallery space seemed coated with an unusual smell; one that i'd usually associate with dirty hampster cages....Or-dead-hampsters.
Morgan's debut exhibit is placed in just one room, containing only three sculptures. The most dramatic piece, Black Fever, hangs heavily from the ceiling like a metallic sculpture, casting a dramatic shadow on the far wall. On closer inspection though, the sculpture is not metal at all. In fact, grey birds wings have been attached together into a tight circular shape to resemble something far more sterdy.
Adjacent to this hangs 'Systemic Inflammation'. Here we see a two winged cornucopias and a cardinal held within an animal's ribcage, lifted into the sky by ballooons. The bright red cardinal is positioned inside so as to resemble a small heart cushioned by the skeleton, and the contrast between the colourful balloons and the blanched bones is quite striking.
To explain this seemingly complex concept, Morgan uses the method of taxiderma, (the stuffing of animals) but instead of presenting them as-just-this, she twists them into something dark and psychological. The name of the exhibition 'Psychopomps' represents mythical creatures that conduct souls into the after-life and, without question, there is certainly a mythical element to Morgan's pieces.
Polly Morgan, Psychopomps, 21 July-25 September
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