What is it that invites us to love? Is it an invisible filament wrapping around and around, cocooning us with its energy? Perhaps it is a holographic flicker of familiarity, or simply a previously unknown glimpse of ourselves.
Once in a while we see something that shoots straight into our hearts and stays there. So it was for me with a piece of art that I recently viewed at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
For those who might be traveling to South Australia, the Art Gallery SA is well worth a look. It is a gem of a gallery. Recently they closed the main areas for a traveling exhibition of Impressionist work. During the exhibition, they used the time to reimagine their own future display of treasured works. The five main areas have now been rehung with their own collection, to great advantage. As with most things in Adelaide, the gallery is evolving and becoming its better self.
After we had viewed the main galleries we entered one of the smaller galleries and it was there I was smitten. I can’t remember if I gasped or not, but if I didn’t I should have! I know I stopped for a couple of seconds to try to take in what I was seeing. The object of my initial shock, and immediate attraction, drew me in. Was it real? Was it fake? What was it there to tell?
Thirty five years ago in the Adelaide Zoo, a baby giraffe died. It was kept in the freezer of the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston, Tasmania, until an artist, jeweller, and taxidermist named Julia deVille discovered it seven years ago.
Julia deVille commissioned another artist, Kate Rhode, to create the ‘vitrine’ (glass display case) that holds her sensitively posed and adorned creature. All of the jewellery was created using precious metals and jewels especially for this purpose. Perhaps more than most of the art I have seen in my life, this impacted me for its sensitive execution, and thoughtful inspiration. Julia deVille’s question to the world is:
‘why do we divide animals into arbitrary categories such as food, pets, pests, entertainment, endangered and protected species?’
To my thinking, this gorgeous creature would have perished to dust, or lay forever in a cold dark freezer with no one knowing it had ever existed. Instead, it has a new life. It was always one of nature’s works of art, but now it is also a human work of art.
Always in my heart, whenever I want to visit.
The work is titled ‘Mother is My Monarch’ and these words accompany it:
Mother is My Monarch,
She is the folds of the universe in which I lie and all becomes still
Truth and Royalty
Reverence and the Revered
Feline Lepidoptera*
Mother Monarch
I hail thee
(*Lepidoptera refers to an order of insects including butterflies)
ardysez 
What an extraordinary and tender work. And so strange and thought provoking, I was not expecting to see something like this, this morning. Thankyou Ardys for sharing the images, I can see the little hairs on her muzzle and imagine her softness and the feel of herbwhrn alive. I must have seen giraffes as a child at Whipsnade zoo. I don’t know if we still keep them here. And her casket is exquisite and your words and the poem enfold her in more layers, cultural, human – anyway really lovely, Thankyou xx
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Ps I looked at this on my phone so I didn’t see the extra images at the bottom till just now. Speechless 😶
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I was especially interested in your statement about not expecting to see this post and its photos this morning because it must have been a bit like my experience coming around the opening and seeing this in front of me, a bit of shock, but it turned out in a good way. We actually went to a plains zoo that conserves endangered animals while in South Australia last year and we went with a small group to hand feed the giraffes. It was truly memorable. They are such impossible looking creatures! Thank you for reading Jo. xx
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I suppose it is my work with orphaned wildlife that this story and the beautiful images touched me deeply. The detail in the images both of hair and hoof, and jeweled adornments, are exquisite. The hooves were the most moving to me, tears welled up as I noted the lighter color at the tips, indicating this baby was a newborn or perhaps just a few days old. The legs are positioned nicely, but I think it would have appeared more natural for the head to lay back gently, resting along the right flank, as long-necked creatures lay their heads back to rest and sleep.
What moved me most were the words, “why do we divide animals into arbitrary categories such as food, pets, pests, entertainment, endangered and protected species?” I keep visiting these delicate images, Ardys… I’m just speechless.
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Me too, Lori. It’s hard to type with tear-filled eyes. Thank you for sharing this, Ardys.
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Thank you Lori and Kim, it was quite an emotional experience for me in the gallery, too. That is very interesting to know what the colouration on the hooves indicates. Having seen adult giraffes last year, which are huge, I had guessed this one must have been virtually newborn but it’s always good to learn something more about an event that captures your imagination…and heart. Thank you both for reading. xx
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I gasped at the photo. I can’t even imagine coming upon this in real life. Unforgettable.
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I’m glad this post seems to have captured some of the feeling I had in the gallery and that the photos show how exquisitely the piece was rendered. Thank you for reading xo
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The Art Gallery of South Australia is a gem, and well worth a visit, especially if you can see amazing pieces like this. Aren’t we fortunate to have institutions like these? This reminds me of Sleeping Beauty, lying in the ornate casket, waiting for the Giraffe Prince ~ or maybe the Giraffe Mother? ~ to give the kiss of rebirth.
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It exactly reminded me of Sleeping Beauty too, Anne! Yes, we are fortunate to have places like the AGSA. I’m back in Adelaide in a couple of weeks and plan to go see the giraffe again 💕 Thanks Anne.
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Your photo and words have gone some way to healing something for me that is a work in progress. I have a palpable phobia of dead things… have no idea if it has a name. A terrifying experience was walking into a trendy inner-city florist, garden, old wares, designer shop to be confronted by several large specimens of taxidermy African wildlife… including a giraffe head including of course its neck. I was horrified on physical and personal levels. Why and who would pay money for them as a decorator item…rhetorical question. Materialism gone mad. This artwork and your photos are a real antidote. It amplifies the rendering and materials of art itself… sometimes more is really more… befittingly exalting this baby animal preserved with perhaps recognition at the time of its preciousness -or future usefulness-… who knows… however without intention lapsed. In the process creating not trophy but icon… that serves to remind us of the fitting place of non-human animals on this earth beside rather than below fellow human animals.
Thank you for sharing, it really is beautiful, and the Art Gallery of South Australia is now on my SA itinerary.
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I’m always so happy to think that my posts might help someone. You know, my Dad collected a few taxidermy pieces when I was still at home and for a few years after and I never liked them. They are like trophies and speak to me of man’s triumph over the beasts, which I don’t like. I hope you get to AGSA one day as it is full of lovely things. I hope this helps you reconcile some of those uncomfortable feelings. x
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Beautiful on so many levels, i can see why it touched you si deeply. I now feel a pressing need to visit Adelaide to see this work of art. As I was reading, I began to wonder whether future generations will only see the natural world, its animals, insects and lovely creatures, in this way, taxidermied and contained in glass cases.
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I know what you mean Francesca. I despair at the thought of future generations only knowing fauna and flora from preserved specimens. Even ones as beautiful as this one. I believe the piece is on loan from Sophie Gannon Gallery in Melbourne in case you miss it in Adelaide. I’m not sure how long it is on display in Adelaide, but I am going to try and see it again in a week or so when I’m back in Adelaide so I will try to find out. Thanks for your lovely comment.
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What a tender work of art… the exquisite beauty of this precious creature crowned with beautiful jewels… the sadness of its dying and the misery of zoos was tempered by the love and sensitivity of the artists… amazing post Ardys, and I can see why you were so moved by this heart-rending art…
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Thank you Valerie. It was very special.
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