0:00:20 > 0:00:23I do think taxidermy appeals to people, perhaps,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27who don't have any time for conceptual art
0:00:27 > 0:00:31and they like to see the work that's gone into it
0:00:31 > 0:00:35and maybe just to be reassured that they couldn't do that themselves.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40I like to think my work kind of combines both of those.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44It can be conceptual and have that craft too.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31It's a parrot. I'm just looking for something specific right now.
0:01:34 > 0:01:35This is a gannet.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38A lady in Liverpool sent me it, she found it on the beach.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08To start with, when I first began doing taxidermy,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12I was so overawed by the animals themselves
0:02:12 > 0:02:16that I would get inspiration from just looking at a bird or something
0:02:16 > 0:02:19and it was a much more instinctive thing, so I would walk around
0:02:19 > 0:02:23with a bird and I'd put it on things and in things and I would
0:02:23 > 0:02:27just sort of see the way it moved and the colours and I would sort of...
0:02:28 > 0:02:32..just kind of... I'd handle it for a day or something, I suppose,
0:02:32 > 0:02:36and start to get a feel for how I think it might look good or
0:02:36 > 0:02:38what elements I could juxtapose it with to make it,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41to sort of bring out the beauty in it.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06This piece I'm going to make will be a scrunched-up bit of paper,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08so, like, the discarding of an idea.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12I'm going to cast the paper in plaster or jesmonite
0:03:12 > 0:03:14so it'll look like a ball of paper
0:03:14 > 0:03:17and it's going to have a broken pencil, again,
0:03:17 > 0:03:22something that you do when you're maddened by your inability to work.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25A broken pencil, but in the shape of a lightning bolt
0:03:25 > 0:03:28so it's going to come out of this scrunched-up paper, which will
0:03:28 > 0:03:30represent the cloud, the cloud hanging over everything,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32which is sort of how I've been feeling lately.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Every time I think of something, the next day I'll wake up
0:03:35 > 0:03:38and decide it's not good enough, so I've had this cloud hanging over me
0:03:38 > 0:03:41and that's going to be represented with a scrunched-up ball of paper.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44And then the lightning flash will be made of a broken pencil
0:03:44 > 0:03:47and it's going to be penetrating the breast of the bird.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50I'm actually thinking now, putting this bird next to these,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53I'm wondering if the bird may be a little bit too big for this piece.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56I might try and find something a bit smaller. Oh...
0:03:57 > 0:03:59Ah...
0:04:02 > 0:04:05I wonder whether this might be a slightly better bird.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07This is a mynah bird.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09I'm going to go look at this now.
0:04:09 > 0:04:10It might be a little smaller.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23Yeah, great, I'm going to use this one.
0:04:23 > 0:04:24Tell me why that pleases you more.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27It's just a slightly better size than the other one.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30This one, to me, just looks a little bit too big.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33It's only a fractional difference, but it makes...
0:04:33 > 0:04:34It changes things, for me.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38It's all about balance really, when I'm making stuff. Everything...
0:04:38 > 0:04:40It's a difficult thing to explain,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43but everything just need to balance right and I feel like that does.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48One of my first works, right in the beginning,
0:04:48 > 0:04:54I was just walking around my flat, in my studio, with this dead rat.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56It was a very fleshy, very floppy thing.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00I really like these old-fashioned champagne glasses
0:05:00 > 0:05:02and I bought them from an antique shop.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05And I put it inside and it fitted so nicely.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07It sort of spilled out slightly on the edges,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10it looked like a scoop of furry ice cream.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12And there was something very surrealist about it
0:05:12 > 0:05:15and it just looked really beautiful and I really...
0:05:15 > 0:05:19It was that thing I talk about with balance, it just sort of balanced.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24And it was bought by Vanessa Branson.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28I installed it at her house next to a Grayson Perry vase
0:05:28 > 0:05:30and I sort of thought, this is crazy.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34I couldn't quite believe that someone who bought things like that
0:05:34 > 0:05:35was buying my work.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51So I'm basically disconnecting the top layer of skin,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55with all the feathers rooted in, from the body.
0:05:55 > 0:05:56Um...
0:05:56 > 0:06:00which I do by making small cuts
0:06:00 > 0:06:03and sort of peeling it with my fingers.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26SHE BLOWS ON THE FEATHERS
0:06:26 > 0:06:29I think taxidermy has, for a long time,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32been about the display of the animal, and that's it really.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36And everything else has been secondary to that. So...
0:06:36 > 0:06:41the taxidermist would create little, kind of, worlds
0:06:41 > 0:06:44and cases where they'd mimic the natural environment of the animal.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49Um, and I've never sought to do that in my work at all.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53Um, the animals,
0:06:53 > 0:06:58I suppose, have been used more to convey an idea or an atmosphere or...
0:07:02 > 0:07:08..to create humour for a number of reasons, but not my...
0:07:08 > 0:07:12my sort of modus operandi has never been just to show
0:07:12 > 0:07:14the animal as it is in life.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24Just making sure that the balloon actually sits straight
0:07:24 > 0:07:27cos sometimes it needs a bit of tweaking.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34I...I've always wanted to bring taxidermy up-to-date I suppose.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37And almost get away... Even though I use the domes and everything,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39I've kind of wanted to get away from the Victoriana
0:07:39 > 0:07:41that it's associated with.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44And make it sort of more modern, and more sort of pop, I suppose.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48And I found that, obviously, the balloon is a very sort of pop image.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51And I thought there was something very poignant and touching, really,
0:07:51 > 0:07:57about the sight of this little bird that had never matured
0:07:57 > 0:07:59going up in a balloon.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05There was something sort of womb-like about the balloon
0:08:05 > 0:08:07and the string and the umbilical cord,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10and I couldn't really get away from what it reminded me of.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17Um, well, very often when people look at my work...
0:08:19 > 0:08:22..certainly if they're just sort of not thinking deeply about it,
0:08:22 > 0:08:26they think it's about death because I've used a dead animal.
0:08:27 > 0:08:28But I would say to that that, you know,
0:08:28 > 0:08:30charcoal drawing isn't about dead
0:08:30 > 0:08:33because it's made out of dead wood, dead, burnt wood,
0:08:33 > 0:08:35you know, I think that it's...
0:08:35 > 0:08:37it is a material like any other
0:08:37 > 0:08:44and I think it can be used to convey all kinds of meanings, really.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46And it's very literal to look at it
0:08:46 > 0:08:50and just assume that the artist is talking about death.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53Sometimes I am, I'm not saying that I don't in my work, it does happen.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57But that's not...that's not the only thing, and mostly actually,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59I think my work's more about life
0:08:59 > 0:09:01and about the triumph of life over death.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07And, um, I did a piece of work a few years ago which was a coffin
0:09:07 > 0:09:11that was sort of splitting open, it looked really rotten and decrepit.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15And it had hundreds of tiny, tiny little quail chicks
0:09:15 > 0:09:19bursting from within with their beaks open like they wanted to feed.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24It kind of overwhelmed me, the sight of them altogether.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27I'd been making all these heads and bodies for ages,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30just sitting round doing the same thing every day for months.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32And suddenly, just seeing them all like that,
0:09:32 > 0:09:34all on top of each other and around each other,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37they suddenly had the impact that I'd hoped they'd have.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42I think, just chicks, trying to feed,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46I find, personally, quite a shocking and alarming image.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50Any suckling babies, really, they are like parasites really
0:09:50 > 0:09:52and that's all they do.
0:09:52 > 0:09:53Chicks are just mouths, really,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55there's very little more to them than the mouth.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58The mouth is really oversized in relation to the body.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01And that's all they're about at that point.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03And there's something very frenzied
0:10:03 > 0:10:06and terrifying about that sort of need to be fed.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16The terror really lies in life, not in death,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20because death is a peaceful state, ultimately.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23But it's the actual life and the fight for life
0:10:23 > 0:10:28and the fight to stay alive which is actually more scary to me.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53The show that I made this for was called Endless Plains
0:10:53 > 0:10:56which is the English translation of Serengeti,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58which was a place I visited a year or so ago now.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04Inside...the...
0:11:04 > 0:11:07what looks like the rib cage of the stag
0:11:07 > 0:11:12are hundreds of little bats hanging on the ribs, asleep.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14Um, and I've concealed mirrors
0:11:14 > 0:11:18inside the stag at either end so that it looks like it goes on endlessly.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26I came up with the idea of bats sleeping on the inside of there
0:11:26 > 0:11:29because there's something very peaceful, but at the same time,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32there's this sort of potential about bats sleeping,
0:11:32 > 0:11:33you know that at any minute
0:11:33 > 0:11:36they could all just sort of...come at you.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39BATS WINGS FLAPPING WILDLY
0:11:39 > 0:11:44I like the sort of idea of the uncanny and that sort of
0:11:44 > 0:11:48doing a double-take on something when your mind plays tricks with you
0:11:48 > 0:11:49and you, sort of, I don't know,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52you think something is something else or...
0:11:52 > 0:11:56that weird thing that happens in dreams when you're talking to someone
0:11:56 > 0:11:59and then suddenly they're someone else and you don't even question it.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04And I suppose, just to create something that feels familiar
0:12:04 > 0:12:06to you somehow.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10Even though it doesn't exist... is quite pleasing.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23- Hiya.- Hi.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25You all right?
0:12:25 > 0:12:27Yeah. How are you?
0:12:29 > 0:12:32- Have you got my squirrel?- Yes...
0:12:32 > 0:12:34I have.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37Not defrosting, hopefully.
0:12:37 > 0:12:38There you go.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41- Thank you.- She's quite a big one.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47- Clawing her way out the bag. - Yeah, I know.- Wow.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51- She's quite big.- Yeah, stupidly big, she's in good condition.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54- Very good condition. - A kind of stunned pose.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57Maybe she just had a heart attack on the pavement.
0:12:57 > 0:12:58I don't know where she found it.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01- Think it was just outside the girl's house, wasn't it?- Yeah.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06Is that your role, then? Picking up dead animals?
0:13:06 > 0:13:09- Yes.- One of his roles, yeah. - One of my many roles, yeah.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13Delivery, special delivery. More special than the Royal Mail.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16I had to check, when I was doing interviews for the job,
0:13:16 > 0:13:19I had to check that the people were comfortable handling dead animals.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22That's true. I'm not sure my flatmates appreciated it
0:13:22 > 0:13:23in the freezer last night.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25My vegan flatmates.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36I decided early on that I wanted to work only with animals
0:13:36 > 0:13:38that had died natural or unpreventable deaths.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41Someone sent me a sort of exotic chicken once,
0:13:41 > 0:13:42which was very odd looking,
0:13:42 > 0:13:44I couldn't work out what it was for quite a while
0:13:44 > 0:13:47because it had frozen in a strange position.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50She's a friend of mine, and she's funny she just...she keeps animals
0:13:50 > 0:13:52and she lives in the country and...
0:13:52 > 0:13:55she's terrible at warning me, so she'll just send me, like,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58her child's pet rabbit will suddenly arrive in the post one day.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Fortunately, I always seem to be in when they arrive.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03But occasionally...
0:14:03 > 0:14:05there's a guy who sends me bags of budgies.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08He breeds budgies and he seems to lose a lot of budgies.
0:14:10 > 0:14:11But he'll save them over time.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16And suddenly just post me a massive box of budgies out of the blue
0:14:16 > 0:14:18and I have missed his post a few times
0:14:18 > 0:14:22and had to go pick up a load of rotten birds from the post office.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27I try to say yes to everything I'm offered, really,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30because I never know what I'm going to come up with next
0:14:30 > 0:14:31and what I'm going to need.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33And in the past, I've turned things down
0:14:33 > 0:14:36and then a couple of weeks later suddenly thought of something
0:14:36 > 0:14:38that involved that animal and kicked myself.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41So as long as there's freezer space for it, I take it.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57This was a totally unexpected present from a friend
0:14:57 > 0:14:58a couple of months ago for my birthday.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01She turned up for dinner in a posh restaurant
0:15:01 > 0:15:04with it wrapped in bubble wrap and presented it to me.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06It's a Cape buffalo. It's incredibly heavy.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10And she's very small, but she's one of the toughest women I've ever met.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12So she managed to carry it in.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16Do you think people see a big bit of taxidermy
0:15:16 > 0:15:19and they think, "Oh, Polly would like that"?
0:15:19 > 0:15:21I guess so, yeah. Yeah.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24They either with associate me with taxidermy or roadkill.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26I often get texts from people saying,
0:15:26 > 0:15:29"Saw a dead fox today and thought of you!"
0:15:49 > 0:15:52I actually view my work and cooking,
0:15:52 > 0:15:55meat for cooking, very separately, actually.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Because I did used to think that I might, erm,
0:15:58 > 0:16:01eat the bodies that I removed from birds.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Cos it seems like a bit of a waste just throwing them out.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07I would be slightly worried, existing on roadkill.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09Maybe when I'm a crazy old lady.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13Is that your ambition?
0:16:13 > 0:16:14Well, I think I will be probably
0:16:14 > 0:16:17quite a hermit as an old lady, I think.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20I imagine myself living in the countryside with loads of dogs.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24I mean, I have a lot of friends in the London art scene
0:16:24 > 0:16:27and I like them and obviously if I'm out...
0:16:27 > 0:16:32I think the problem is the times people see me pictured
0:16:32 > 0:16:36represent probably about two percent of my time,
0:16:36 > 0:16:40which is when I'm invited out to a party or something.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42So I've made an effort, I've dressed up and I get there
0:16:42 > 0:16:44and someone stops to take my picture
0:16:44 > 0:16:46and I turn and smile for the camera like I'm enjoying myself.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48And often, you know, I have a nice enough time.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50But it doesn't mean I really want to be there.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54And such a small amount of my time, but that's when I get photographed.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56So that's what people see of me
0:16:56 > 0:16:59and sometimes, what worries me a little bit, actually,
0:16:59 > 0:17:00that that's probably...
0:17:00 > 0:17:03and know I look in the papers and I see,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05if I see photos of people at parties all the time I think,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08"Oh, God! Do you ever get any work done?"
0:17:15 > 0:17:17David, food's ready.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22Everywhere I've lived before, I've been sort of...
0:17:22 > 0:17:24The work has taken precedence
0:17:24 > 0:17:27and the life has been, like, shoved in a corner.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Now I've got this really nice clear delineation between work and life,
0:17:31 > 0:17:33with the two separate floors,
0:17:33 > 0:17:35and I like to make them look really different as well.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38One is kind of nice and clean and spacious
0:17:38 > 0:17:40and the other's quite cluttered and dusty!
0:17:52 > 0:17:54Does it not bother the dogs?
0:17:54 > 0:17:55No, they're very used to it.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58I got him as a puppy, and he's just...that's his life.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01They love it when dead animals arrive in the post.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03They run up to the box and start sniffing it,
0:18:03 > 0:18:04and I know that something's arrived.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07Um...no, they're not...
0:18:07 > 0:18:10they're not very interested, really, in what I do.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12I've tried feeding them the bodies before,
0:18:12 > 0:18:13but they weren't that bothered.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16They just sort of played football with them.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18SHE LAUGHS And made a mess!
0:18:23 > 0:18:27That's one thing that I find a bit unwelcome, actually, about taxidermy.
0:18:27 > 0:18:28Sometimes you get...
0:18:28 > 0:18:31you just can't help find yourself imagining
0:18:31 > 0:18:34what's under the skin when your petting an animal.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37So I'll just sometimes be stroking, cuddling the dogs,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40and I can visualise what's underneath the skin,
0:18:40 > 0:18:43because I've done foxes before and they're very similar.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46And you really...even with humans, you know, I can sort of...
0:18:46 > 0:18:49obviously I've never skinned a human being, but at the same time,
0:18:49 > 0:18:51I can visualise now how things are put together, and it's great.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54You know, on the one hand, it's given me a really...
0:18:55 > 0:19:02..good understanding of nature and biology, but on the other hand...
0:19:04 > 0:19:06..it does sort of intrude on your daily life sometimes
0:19:06 > 0:19:08and it makes you feel...
0:19:08 > 0:19:11It just makes you feel a bit more sort of prone and vulnerable, really.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14You start to realise how fragile you really are.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19You know, I'd know exactly how to chop my hand off if I needed to,
0:19:19 > 0:19:24and where to aim for, and it just sort of makes me feel sometimes...
0:19:24 > 0:19:27well, it reminds me of how fragile we all are, really.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37SHE SIGHS
0:19:50 > 0:19:53So I make an incision at the back of the skull like that.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56And then across, sort of cut a box in it.
0:19:58 > 0:19:59And then down here.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15And then I cut this part here,
0:20:15 > 0:20:17underneath the jaw.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29I was very lucky. I got attention pretty quickly,
0:20:29 > 0:20:31or my work got attention pretty quickly,
0:20:31 > 0:20:35and I think it really is because the material I chose to use
0:20:35 > 0:20:39was quite kind of captivating to people.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42That's the tongue.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47And on top of that, there weren't that many people,
0:20:47 > 0:20:49or not many people doing it,
0:20:49 > 0:20:51so it's far easier to stand out
0:20:51 > 0:20:53than it would be if I was painting,
0:20:53 > 0:20:56or if I was a photographer or something, you know?
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Photographers and painters are ten a penny, really, in East London.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02You have to be doing something pretty different with it
0:21:02 > 0:21:04to get people's attention.
0:21:04 > 0:21:05So I am aware of that.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08I realise that it's not my genius
0:21:08 > 0:21:12that has brought me the attention that I've got.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16But now that I've got it, I think that I have to try and use it wisely.
0:21:24 > 0:21:29The idea behind Departures was really to sort of create an homage
0:21:29 > 0:21:32to an inventor that had created
0:21:32 > 0:21:37a drawing of a flying machine.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39It was a kind of carriage that a human would sit in,
0:21:39 > 0:21:41and it would be carried by birds,
0:21:41 > 0:21:44and in his instance, eagles.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50There's just something touching, I think,
0:21:50 > 0:21:52about that human need to fly.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54We're earthbound creatures,
0:21:54 > 0:21:56but yet, we want to go deep-sea diving,
0:21:56 > 0:21:59we want to go up in the air, and we want to experience everything,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01and we sort of have bird envy, I think, a lot of the time.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12Departures was probably a reflection
0:22:12 > 0:22:16of the confidence that I was feeling at the time in my work.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23And also my desire to kind of make things a little bit less
0:22:23 > 0:22:26ornamental and more monumental.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29I wanted to see if I could be the sort of artist
0:22:29 > 0:22:30that commands a space.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49I named this piece Foundations/Remains
0:22:49 > 0:22:53because I like the idea that it could be looked at in different ways.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57It could either be the foundations of a building, of something new,
0:22:57 > 0:22:59of something beautiful that's springing up,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02because it almost looks like scaffolding,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05or, like, the sort of foundations you put on a building
0:23:05 > 0:23:08before it's all sort of assembled.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Or it could be the remains of something that has...
0:23:10 > 0:23:14a building that has sprung up and has been allowed to die
0:23:14 > 0:23:17and rotted, almost.
0:23:17 > 0:23:22They are all crow femurs, so leg bones of the crow, and I made
0:23:22 > 0:23:27about 20 or 30 moulds of them, and then cast out 2,428, I think.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32And then they are all hand-painted, as well.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Which way do you want the shadow?
0:23:34 > 0:23:36I don't think it really matters.
0:23:36 > 0:23:37I like that shape of that shadow.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42I used to take all the photographs of my work myself,
0:23:42 > 0:23:46but I'm no professional photographer, so I have since
0:23:46 > 0:23:50had them professionally photographed, always almost by the same girl.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56Stop!
0:23:56 > 0:23:57No, go back a little bit.
0:23:59 > 0:24:00Yes, let's try that.
0:24:03 > 0:24:04That's nice, actually.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08You do get a greater sense of the spiral if you look at it on there.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11I have to let go of it once it has left the studio,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14I can't follow it around for the rest of its life,
0:24:14 > 0:24:19so I think it's important to send it on its way as best you can.
0:24:28 > 0:24:30I have peaks and troughs all the time, you know,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33I have these crazy highs where I think, well, everything's going
0:24:33 > 0:24:36so well, I am on top of the world, I can do no wrong
0:24:36 > 0:24:38and then the next day I will wake up feeling miserable,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41thinking that it is all just a big fluke,
0:24:41 > 0:24:46and everyone is going to wake up to the fact that I am just a con artist.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51Which is obviously not how I feel about myself most of the time,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54but then you get these moments of huge confidence crisis,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56when you think, "What the hell am I doing? Why am I doing this?
0:24:56 > 0:24:59"Who's it for? What's the point?"
0:24:59 > 0:25:03But, somehow, I am compelled to carry on doing it.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10I will generally always take on a little bit more work than
0:25:10 > 0:25:11I think I can do.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14I'm almost always in a position of feeling that there are not
0:25:14 > 0:25:16enough hours in the day to do things.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21So, the wire that has come out of my false neck
0:25:21 > 0:25:24I have got to glue into the back of the skull here.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29Once it is set, I will turn the skin back the right way
0:25:29 > 0:25:31round again, over the body, over the form.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56It's tricky, this part, because you're trying to get the widest
0:25:56 > 0:25:59point of the skull through quite a narrow aperture in the neck.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35So, you can see that it starts to take shape at this point,
0:26:35 > 0:26:41and it's really just a question of pinning things in place,
0:26:41 > 0:26:44padding things out, bending wires, stitching it up
0:26:44 > 0:26:48and modelling the head and giving it a good dry,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51and it will look like a bird again.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04But, all of that finishing off is something you have to be quite
0:27:04 > 0:27:08fresh for, and it's something I have learned never to do
0:27:08 > 0:27:11that at the end of the day, because I need patience for it,
0:27:11 > 0:27:16and I really need to be quite sharp, so I've generally,
0:27:16 > 0:27:18if I have been working on a bird in the day,
0:27:18 > 0:27:20I will quite often leave it at this point,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23come back to it the next morning when I feel a bit fresher.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01I'm just putting in my studio freezer alongside a few other
0:28:01 > 0:28:06bits of food because I'm too lazy to go into the stockroom.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11If I'm doing something repetitively,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14I start to dream about it as I am going to sleep.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20I often have weird images come to mind as I am drifting off.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23I do quite often dream that I am working on a bird and it comes
0:28:23 > 0:28:24to life and attacks me.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35WINGS FLAPPING
0:28:46 > 0:28:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd