In the art of taxidermy gesture is paramount, hence for jeweller and taxidermist Julia deVille the most considered aspect of creation is composing her subjects to find a balance between pathos, humour and dignified realism.

Arriving in Australia from New Zealand on the cusp of adulthood, deVille trained as a jeweller before her long hunt for a taxidermy mentorship was successful. Driven by a strong commitment to animal rights, deVille’s sculptural assemblages belie the heroic, trophy-hunting culture associated with mounting dead animals. In a form of gentle protest she combines precious gems and metals with antique ‘ready-mades’ to challenge our disregard for and consumption of both wild and domesticated fauna.

Drawing on Renaissance, Baroque and Victorian art and ideas, deVille creates contemporary ‘memento mori’ that raise our curiosity through the use of paradoxical processes and materials. While all deVille’s creatures have died a natural death, they live on as beautiful and compelling allegories, begging a reflection on our symbiotic but decidedly unequal relationship with the animal world and our cavalier disregard for mortality in general.

In 2011 deVille was commissioned by MONA to create a permanent installation. Her work Custard was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in 2012. In 2013 she was featured in the National Gallery of Victoria’s Melbourne Now and in 2014, the Adelaide Biennial at the Art Gallery of South Australia, resulting in the acquisition of deVille’s Victorian Cat Mummy. In 2016 she won the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize and in 2017 she was awarded a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship. She exhibits regularly in Australia and internationally.