Friday 28 November 2008

Introducing... Julia deVille

To round things off this week, here is an interview with Gallery 1 exhibitor Julia deVille. The loveliest taxidermist/jeweller on this side of the world, CVHQ is sad to see Julia's show come to a close tomorrow, Saturday 29 November. That being said, we hope you come down for a last peek at the exhibition in its stunning glory. If you're not able to make it down, fret not for you can have a look at the exhibition on our website and on our blog. It's not all visual too! Click here for the catalogue essay, and here for the transcript of Julia's interview with Andrew Denton.


Julia and her adorable pooch, Chilli

In the beginning…
I started studying jewellery in late 2002 and at the same time met my taxidermy mentor Rudi. It was natural for me to combine the two art forms together as I was mainly working in small birds and mice, which lent themselves nicely to the scale of jewellery. I was already running a hobby business making leather gloves and accessories so I had a small retailer base. This meant I could slowly start introducing my jewellery to my retailers as well. When I graduated I had an exhibition at e.g.etal which received a full page write up in the age. This press coverage was what really got my name out there and my practice has been growing organically since.

To clear the air of common misconceptions…
I guess a lot of people’s first reaction is to think I have killed the animals myself. However, I am very vocal about the fact I am a vegetarian and an animal rights activist and you don't have to look too far in a Google search to find that out.

When I was younger…
I wanted to be a fashion designer, an artist, a champion roller skater and an astronaut.

About the 'shark head incident'...
Basically, I took a sharks head to kindy for show and tell and my teacher was pregnant and threw up... banned for life from show and tell.

The best thing about what I do…
I get to make beautiful things all day as well as generate thought and conversation about important topics I think are generally ignored by our society today.

...and the worst thing
Book work and BAS.

If I could collaborate with anyone, it would be…
Well, William Griffiths and I are going to do a show together next year. He is one of my favourite jewellers so that should be fun. I would also like to do a show with Katherine Bowman - she has such an amazing eye and is a dear friend of mine.

In the future…
I will always work within the same themes as they mean a lot to me but I would like to move into larger sculptural pieces, like the works I produced for Ossuarium.

Tangled lily necklace


Claw ring


Bird wing brooch

1 comment:

oldflowers4me said...

wow-she is divine.