We were really excited to heard to down to All Visual Arts last week for the opening of Polly Morgan's new show 'Endless Plains'. The private view was packed early on with everyone eager to see Polly's new series of works.

It is common for the public to view taxidermy as a dark and disturbing art. So, to the detriment of this demographic, Polly Morgan has taken it a step further in producing an even more surreal and macabre experience, which often features mutant hybrid creatures seeking to challenge the notions of nature.

The works range from drawings of nests with the appropriate dead bird lying atop the frame to a prone fox sprouting octopus tentacles.

One of the two centrepieces is a fallen tree trunk complete with piglets, and birds going about their daily foraging. It all seems so natural, until it occurs to the viewer that the piglets are suckling on sap from the prostrate trunk in the manner that they usually would with their mother. 

The shows' lighting complements the works brilliantly by keeping the art under the spotlights and the viewer in the dark. It’s how one might imagine viewing the creations of a mad scientist while in his laboratory.

This exhibition is definitely not for the faint-hearted. However, for those who aren’t put off by the squeamish elements, Morgan will show taxidermy in a bold and interesting perspective. Some will find her art to be disturbing while others will note her sense of humour. Polly Morgan has taken a once-neglected, and now resurgent art form, applied her own take on it, and produced something in the process which is both refreshing and rousing.

Polly Morgan: Endless Plains is on display at All Visual Arts, 2 Omega Place, N1 9DR until 31 July.

To read our last blog on Polly, including links to a full interview, please click here

Contemporary artist Polly Morgan, renowned for using taxidermy to create artworks, says her upcoming London show will not only include taxidermy but will also include drawings made using cremated animal ashes.

In a new interview with FAD, she says: "I have in my freezer ashes from the animal crematorium, and I have used those ashes to draw. What I mean is, I draw blind as I'm using a pen with glue, so it's completely transparent and it's only when I scatter the ashes on top that the picture suddenly appear."

Morgan also says the main piece in her upcoming London show will be a rotten tree, which she found in Norfolk and made a mould out of, making it look like "a very life-like looking rotten tree". The new show will also, accordingly, feature rubber castings of animals that she says look more convincing than taxidermy.

You can read the full interview here.

Morgan's new show Endless Plains was inspired by her recent visit to the Serengeti and confronts the view with the cycle of life: predators, parasites and prey. According to the press release, shortly after Morgan's trip she herself confronted her own mortality "developing life-threatening peritonitis and gangrene, where part of her own body died and went under the scalpel".

Polly Morgan's new show Endless Plains will be on at All Visual Art 8 June to 14 July.