An artist profile of Morgan Mavis.
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Describe the process of creating your work. What is involved?
I was just contacted by a fellow collector looking to part with a female prong horned antelope. I already have a dandy of a male specimen from a dusty antique barn on a warm summers day up north. He was an anniversary present and has been with me from the inception of the Conservatory. Getting him a female companion would be wonderful!
The Contemporary Zoological Conservatory is Toronto’s Only Taxidermy Parlor. It is a taxidermy museum that showcases antique and vintage taxidermy as well of the process of accretion and the stories that go along with each animal. It is an ongoing life-long performative installation that changes and evolves with each acquisition. A key part to the work is the process in which the accretion takes place.
I spend a great deal of time researching mammals and birds of interest. I won’t be satisfied until I have a narwhal suspended from the ceiling hanging just below the chandelier. I currently have a driving desire for a full size horse. A white stallion or mare to be more specific. Second best would an appaloosa. If anyone is interested in donating, I can be very accommodating and less fussy.
What projects are you working on? What do you have coming up?
We are going on a European expedition, taking the search continental. I know I will go wild with the abundance of Victorian naturalist specimens. I will drive myself mad one day: first hitch hiking across Canada, that’s not the best method to acquire full body mammal mounts. Now the continent – shipping costs are simply atrocious.
I have other ideas: A wild North American taxidermy adventure in a bio diesel motor home. There is no better way to travel. The fantastic thing about being based out of Canada is that even though we have a heritage of trappers and fur trading, the taxidermy market large enough to make finding animals easy, but small enough to make a good find a source of pride and excitement.
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What are some of your favorite spots in the city?
Ohhh well the Communist’s Daughter is such a staple but if we are stepping out with more than three of us Hen House is where we have been heading.
I love to entertain in my home, and the Conservatory is meant to be the perfect reflection of who I am. So the conservatory hosts many a social event: A celebratory lobster banquet with lobster shipped in straight from the Atlantic Ocean, A quarterly dating game, paring Toronto’s finest singles in a parlor of gawking spectators and animals.
If we are not hosting, you can often find us at Foxley for multi dish meals, or pitchers all round at Bistro 422 when wild debauchery is called for.
When did creating art become something important in your life?
For as long as I can remember I have had wild obsessive collections. My amazing mother would make sojourns with me to small towns looking for all sorts of treasures. I have always been creating and collecting, acquiring and culling experiencing and telling stories. After I completed my thesis at OCAD in 2003 I started to examine what truly interested me and what direction I wanted to take my life in I realized drive for collecting and storytelling and am following that to my next adventure.
What’s your current obsession?
I am simply mad for 1950’s domesticity and playful homebody kitsch, racially stereotypical chalk ware from the 40′-60’s, vintage Pyrex, discarded memories and intention in the form of vintage paint by numbers, petit point, and taxidermy of course. I love the juxtaposition of 1950’s bright kitsch with the austere aristocracy of empire and rococo antiques.
Any last words?
I would generously welcome a donation of a stallion. I will engrave your name on a brass plaque and in the company of your horse, I will cook you a five-course meal and we will dine in the Conservatory. How many people can say they fulfilled the wildest dreams of Morgan Mavis? I found love, now I must find a horse.
