Oh Deer

After the Excitement of TIME OUT, Christmas and New year were for resting. I did nothing until I got a message from Angela Watrouse, an American writer in London briefly to research the life and work of Victorian taxidermist Walter Potter. She got in touch wondering if I would be doing any taxidermy before she left for America and wanted to witness/semi-participate as to effectively write about Potter, to get a true sense of the sensory details-smells, the way the animals feel ect.

I wasn't planing on doing anything but sticking to my new years resolution I said yes. The only thing I had was the head of a Stag, shot before Christmas and left in my freezer. Bit of a tricky one for a first timer but might as well start at the deep end.

The giant bloody head didn't seem to phase her so after a little bit of explaining about where to cut, I let her rip! We cut along the underside of the chin type area and then worked back from there. You can see where the skin and the muscle are different colours. You want to get the white bit off and leave all the red bits on the physical head without tearing. That's the aim.

This is where the head was lopped off. Tossed into the animal dustbin. No one there give a s**t what happens once all the meat has been taken off and out. Everything uneatable is thrown away. I rescued it from a stinking bin.

 

Inside out and upside-down mouth

So there you have it. Face off. Currently this is now in a spare room in the Care Home. I have one for myself, one for sculptures which smell and one room entirely for decomposing casualties. The old people smell goes with it perfectly.

The Care Home where I live could be the perfect place for the next exhibition, making installations in the ex old people's rooms. There's hundreds of them. The only thing is it is in Wimbledon...but that's only 20mins from Waterloo. Not sure how my house mates will feel about live D.I.Y Taxidermy going on in the dining room but we'll see. Late Jan Early Feb???