Forget traditional taxidermy. One Plymouth business has taken the art in a very different and considerably stranger direction.
Behind The World Around Ewe is Plymouth creator Jack Devaney, whose work transforms ethically sourced animal remains into bizarre, humorous and deliberately unconventional creations.
And yes, some of them involve dead rats.
Jack has built a reputation for what he calls “bad taxidermy” though there’s more to it than simply mounting animals. His creations range from rat based pencil cases and unusual ornaments to strange combinations of animal parts and everyday objects.
Rather than making his subjects look lifelike, Jack embraces the oddness. His work sits somewhere between taxidermy, sculpture and comedy, designed to make people look twice and wonder exactly what they’re seeing.
One of his earliest projects turned a dead rat into a pencil case, complete with a built in pencil sharpener. That idea helped establish the style now synonymous with The World Around Ewe.
He’s also developed a range of pieces called “Animalgamations” creatures made by combining different animal elements, existing somewhere between the natural world and pure imagination.
The business has grown well beyond those early experiments. The World Around Ewe now covers taxidermy pieces, insects, ornaments, resin work, jewellery and other deliberately eccentric items.
There’s a literary side too. Jack has written several books, But the reaction to his work hasn’t always been positive. Jack says he’s been banned from some selling platforms and turned away from markets by organisers worried his creations could upset customers. He’s also said the backlash has gone further than discomfort he’s received death threats over his work.
For Jack, the controversy seems part of the appeal. The pieces are built to provoke a reaction laughter, curiosity, confusion or outright horror.
It’s certainly not a business for everyone. For some, a dead rat turned into an everyday object is more than a little unsettling. For others, that’s precisely the draw.
The World Around Ewe has carved out its own strange corner of the creative world taking something most people would call unpleasant and turning it into something built to provoke curiosity, laughter and, occasionally, disbelief.
It might be some of the strangest art coming out of Plymouth.
Photographs © Wayne Perry / Plymouth Post