{"id":16695,"date":"2014-10-02T16:25:50","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T14:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=16695"},"modified":"2014-10-02T16:25:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T14:25:50","slug":"studio-visit-polly-morgan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/studio-visit-polly-morgan\/","title":{"rendered":"For Snake's Sake: a studio visit with Polly Morgan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Polly Polly Morgan. Photo by Georgia Kuhn<\/p>\n

Polly Morgan\u2019s studio space is on the ground floor of a former shellac factory in Hackney Wick, east London. It\u2019s here that Morgan (34), one of Britain\u2019s most original young artists, lives and works. Neighbours include Jake and Dinos Chapman and light artist Martin Richman.
\nLargely self-taught, Morgan\u2019s decade-long career demonstrates a fascinating evolution. Her practice is based on a very British take on the art of taxidermy, successfully combining all man- ner of disparate skills and specialities \u2013 from surgical to sculptural \u2013 which contemplate, de- construct and reinvigorate the practice of present- ing dead animals within an artistic context.
\nSleek steps through the studio doors and is immediately greeted by a pirouetting, barking bundle of black-and-tan fur, which turns out to be one of Morgan\u2019s two dogs, Tony. Her other, a lugubrious Staffordshire Bull Terrier named\u00a0Trotsky, disdains the perpetual whine of the power drill and seeks refuge in her jeep, parked outside.<\/p>\n

\nWithin, Morgan is hunched over a workbench, shaping a freshly-cast red rubber mould of a snake. Scattered about the studio are chunks of wood and marble, a cuboid sculpture of cast crow-leg bones, Stanley knives glinting in lamplight, and a mound of dead serpents. Humming freezers in a rear storeroom reveal an enormous eight-foot python, a cat, a baby boar, “hundreds” of birds of varying types and Trotsky\u2019s dismembered testicles. Chalked on the cabinet doors are the contents within, various breeds of birds and\u00a0mammals, one door is marked \u201cSTILL BIRTHS\u201d. Polly and her team are hard at work when Sleek visits, finishing up a set of brand new sculptures destined for exhibition at Other Criteria, Damien Hirst\u2019s publishing house-cum-art gallery space, specialising in editions from international artists in New York this autumn. It\u2019s her first solo show in the States and she\u2019s using the opportunity to explore, perhaps in greater depth than at anytime previously during her career, the uniquely un- folding potential of sculpture. Snakes lend themselves particularly well to sculpture.<\/p>\n

\"Polly Polly Morgan’s studio. Photo by Georgia Kuhn<\/p>\n

\n“I\u2019ve chosen snakes for their structure and malleability,\u201d Morgan explains. \u201cBut I\u2019ve never really been interested in any symbolism behind them, or the fear aspect. I\u2019m thinking of them purely as sculptural devices.”
\nUnlike some of her earlier works, which tended towards setting chicks, rats, birds and the odd dismembered pigeon within darkly charming settings, these newer pieces are not intended to convey a narrative. Partly, this is a reaction to the flood of imitators that have sprung up in Morgan\u2019s wake and have contributed to something of a taxidermy trend among London\u2019s\u00a0aspiring arterati. Polly acknowledges the recent popularity of taxidermy but quietly places herself elsewhere. “I don\u2019t know many other taxidermists. They tend to be wildlife enthusiasts \u2013 they\u2019re slightly outsiders, and I\u2019ve always identified myself as one too. My absolute horror in life is being part of an in-crowd.”<\/p>\n
\nMostly, her new body of work shows a shift from taxidermy as the central component of her works to it being pressed into the service of formal experimentation. With their swirling, vertiginous forms that recall Modernist sculpture, Morgan eschews the mythological associations of the snake \u2013 the ouroboric, eternally- looping forms that have beguiled philosophers, artists and mystics over the years \u2013 in favour of striking juxtapositions of erupting snake on stone,\u00a0marble or wooden plinths.
\n\u201cPutting the snakes in natural positions is a\u00a0way to appreciate them formally,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u00a0think of a snake as a short fat oblong object or a skinny long one. Their shapes actually vary widely, the bodies are so malleable. When I defrost and shape them, they act so differently.\u201d
\n
\nText by Arsalan Mohammad<\/strong> \n 
\nRead more artist studio visits<\/a><\/strong> \nEntnommen aus Sleek 43, “Youth\/Truth”<\/a><\/strong>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polly Morgan. Photo by Georgia Kuhn Polly Morgan\u2019s studio space is on the ground floor of a former shellac factory in Hackney Wick, east London. It\u2019s here that Morgan (34), one of Britain\u2019s most original young artists, lives and works. Neighbours include Jake and Dinos Chapman and light artist Martin Richman. Largely self-taught, Morgan\u2019s decade-long…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[1734,1735,37,1736],"class_list":["post-16695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-arsalan-mohammad","tag-polly-morgan","tag-studio-visit","tag-taxidermy"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\nFor Snake's Sake: a studio visit with Polly Morgan For Snake's Sake: a studio visit with Polly Morgan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/studio-visit-polly-morgan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For Snake's Sake: a studio visit with Polly Morgan For Snake's Sake: a studio visit with Polly Morgan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Polly Morgan. Photo by Georgia Kuhn Polly Morgan\u2019s studio space is on the ground floor of a former shellac factory in Hackney Wick, east London. It\u2019s here that Morgan (34), one of Britain\u2019s most original young artists, lives and works. Neighbours include Jake and Dinos Chapman and light artist Martin Richman. 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