JANE HOWARTH Pettifoggery a difference of opinion
 
Taxidermy sits amongst specimens in formaldehyde, false wooden legs, edwardian dress mannequins and medical teaching torsos in her South London flat. Jane has always been an impulsive collector of taxidermy and the bizarre and curious. This started when visiting a house in her childhood, which was less a house and more a living museum. There were stuffed bears, cabinets of bizarre creatures and strange things in jars. After years of collecting oddities Jane’s house has become a version of the “House museum” that inspired her. “I am particularly drawn to the reject animals (bloated frogs, scavenger birds, pigmy goats, pickled skinned white rabbits) that nobody buys in car boot sales, auctions or bids for on the Internet. My work is an attempt to transform the “ dirty creatures” into strangely beautiful museum pieces. I have become a cosmetic taxidermist playing with both seduction and repulsion.”