Night’s Plutonian Shore: An Exhibition from Julia deVille

From a young age, Melbourne based jewellery designer and taxidermist, Julia deVille, would wrap her grandmother’s fox fur stoles around her neck and become rapt by the notion of mortality. Yet death to this talented designer was not a bleak path into depression and morbid bleakness, but contrastingly a celebration of life through preservation and beautification. In an upcoming Melbourne exhibition, deVille’s deathly fascinations will attempt to help re-evaluate our perceptions of the future and draw us back to the present; to the moment that, in deVille’s eyes, is too readily forgotten. Entitled “Night’s Plutonian Shore” after a poignantly written exert from Edgar Allan Poe, visitors can expect no less than kitten-drawn funerary carts, stillborn fawns with saddles, encrusted sparrow skulls and a diamond and gold adorned gosling from this highly acclaimed and expertly skilled designer. Night’s Plutonian Shore will be held at the Sophie Gannon Gallery from July 28th- August 21st 2010. 

by Tilly Pearman