Charlie Tuesday Gates and The Museum House Of Death

About

Despite never describing herself as a taxidermist, Charlie Tuesday Gates was instrumental in bringing taxidermy into the mainstream with her pioneering performance series, D.I.Y Taxidermy LIVE! This is her first solo show since retirement, transporting you into a fantasy underworld where beauty and death collide with nostalgia and borderline insanity. Alarming, intriguing and provocative, her sculptures are shrines to forgotten lives and abandoned pasts, where visual puns and contextual juxtapositions offer a surreal and derisive commentary on popular culture and tradition. Sculpture, controversial animalation video pieces and opening night performance in which real animal are manipulated by hand to perform, sing and dance in C.T.G's new musical: 'SING FOR YOUR LIFE!' A talent contest where the recently deceased compete for the chance to live again. A cross between X Factor and Pet Rescue. Pushing the limits on taste, ethics and the subject of controversy itself, some viewers will find these films offensive ..but it's precisely this irony that Gates finds fascinating within these exchanges. Gates believes that life is the most precious gift of all and shouldn't be wasted- her artistic practice illustrates something of the unseen horror stories of life, the food, farming and roadside casualties. Gates' ‘Mind Like Magpie' provides the perfect complement to her sculptural work: wearable art that will be showcased alongside the exhibition. A philosophy of creative transformation celebrates the beauty in life, rather than the reality of death with her eclectic, eccentric headpieces and accessories. Pieces have been commission for Elton John, Beyonce and even seen on the holy head of Cara Delevingne. Hope to see you there at Charlie Tuesday Gates' The Museum House Of Death The Vaults, Waterloo Leake Street. Private view May 22nd 6.30 Performance 7.30