Charlie Tuesday Gates transports you into a fantasy underworld where beauty and death collide with nostalgia and borderline insanity. Forgotten lives and abandoned pasts are juxtaposed incongruously in shrines alongside absurdist humour and dark surrealism; the results are terrifying, intriguing, and alarming. Visual puns and contextual juxtapositions offer a surreal and derisive commentary on popular culture and tradition.

 

Despite never describing herself as a taxidermist, Gates was instrumental in bringing taxidermy into the mainstream with her pioneering performance series, D.I.Y Taxidermy LIVE! The Museum House of Death is her first solo show since retirement.

 

Gates will present a special live performance of ‘SING FOR YOUR LIFE!’ in the dark, damp depths of the underground Vaults. In this musical, a cross between X Factor and Pet Rescue, real animals are manipulated by hand to perform, sing and dance. Some viewers will find all of these images deeply offensive as they push the limits of taste, ethics and the subject of controversy itself… It’s precisely this irony that Gates finds fascinating within these exchanges. Controversial “animalation” video pieces will also be screened.

 

Gates believes that life is the most precious gift of all and shouldn’t be wasted and her artistic practice illustrates something of the unseen horror stories beside the roadside, food and farming industries.

 

Her fashion brand ‘Mind Like Magpie’ has opened up a new dimension within her creative horizon. She creates eclectic and eccentric headpieces and accessories, wearable art that provides the perfect complement to her sculptural work. A philosophy of creative transformation celebrates the beauty in life, rather than the reality of death. Pieces from this collection will also be on display.

 

***Nothing was ever killed for the use of Gates’ taxidermy or Mind Like Magpie pieces. All creatures are found dead or donated – road kill or casualties of a hideously wasteful food industry. Gates is a vegan.

 

For all Gallery enquiries

gallery@the-vaults.org

0207 401 9603