Charlie Tuesday Gates

Valentines day special. Not for the faint hearted

2012-02-11T18:43:00.000-08:00

I have made some alternative valentines day cards with a slightly vulgar, meaty twist. None of them are particularly romantic, just honest.

Here's something you might give in a more casual relationship.

Roses sit on slabs of meat holding a power card.

And now here's the back:

Tart with a heart.

A mixed meat melody of chicken, ham and steak, fashioned into a penis-hiding behind a heart.

Some things just belong together.

Someone was excited to see you!

Ham and spring onions

'Adventure Box'

Handcrafted & expensive.

This is a very complex card with a poem, collage and wisdom on the back.

Inset your own message above.

This is the poem I've included for you.

Your eye is then drawn to the collage below...

This is what an 'Adventure Box' might look like.

And this is the wisdom on the back.

If you can't read the text then here it is again:

'There was nothing to do but join in and get porked because who knows if there will be a tomorrow?'

Never a truer word spoken.

As we all know, the world is definitely going to end in 2012. Plant the seed of inspiration into someones head with this amorous suggestion.

A pro-active approach to the love you deserve!

Is it a man with balls or a chicken wearing a jacket? It's doubled ended comment either way.

This is The Valentines 2012 collection!!! Guaranteed to impress and woo any member of the opposite sex, sealing deals and changing lives

Money can buy that... or your money back.

There are only nine IN THE WORLD but over the festive season I am doing a limited number of signed photocopies in both black&white and colour.

Email:charlietuesdaywinnergates@gmail.com

Now for your original handcrafted love token or limited edition signed photocopy.

Back On The Meat Market

2012-02-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

I went to Switzerland for a week.

At Gatwick Airport I was very excited to see that Katie Price has her own magazine out! I love her and I love making collages out of her, her and meat.

My favourite Katie Price aka 'Jordan' combination.

Jordan when she was pregnante one time. She has kebabs in her hair.

Jordan and her XXL WOCHEN

Katie Price does Lady Gaga

So like I said was in Switzerland. When I have nothing to do I go back to my roots- collage. Love it. You can always rely on a bit of collage to get you through the hard times, to bring a smile to your face.

I love postcards. They are so boring. On my terrible holiday in Thailand I started Jazzing them up- I got a little addicted to it. Takes your mind off stuff.

Anyway, I needed a reason to live so I put a message out there to the world asking if people wanted free art in the post. The response was a tad overwhelming with 18 orders on one day alone!

Switzerland is so bloody expensive though. I ended up spending about £60 English on stamps and postcards! I only used leaflets from the supermarket and every petrol station we went in, as well as my extra special Katie Price magazine.

Above are the only 4 collages I couldn't bare to be separated from. I have asked all the people I sent postcards to to scan and send an image for my records. Being a serious artist I obviously don't carry around a camera so can only rely on the postman and the goodwill and competence of others.

The postcards are arriving thick and fast. When I have a strong amont I will post them and the kind recipients. There will be more of these art give-a-ways, I usually post them on Facebook and Twitter so 'Like' and 'Follow' for all the lastest and up to date information around the clock.

Love from

Charlie Gates

Porn to Paper

2012-02-08T08:18:00.000-08:00

This post contains doodles which some viewers might find offensive!

There is an erect penis at the end

There are other highly entertaining and completely family friendly posts on the blog :)

It might surprise people that I do this sort of thing since what I usually put out there is weird assemblages often involving dead things......

I don't draw much. Very occasionally inspiration comes in strange disguises...or completely naked in a phone box.

I rescued these girls from Holborn, London. I took them back to my place and they told me of their woes.

My mum likes this one

Swedish sir?

They must have edited out the genuine penis so I have given you a demonstration of what she might look like pre- op.

And here's the man on the other end of the telephone!

I decided the naked ladies needed a male companion so I typed 'Sexy Naked Man' into Google. This is what happened:

This was a very random day.

I never usually pick up a pen (my preference is black biro), but when I do it's always really hard, angry lines. Spikes everywhere, snarling teeth and monsters. Very aggressive. Usually I work solely from my imagination so these drawings are unusual because they have come from an outside stimulas.

Apparently I enjoy-it but if you thought about the psychology, it is a little strange.

Love from

Charlie Gates

Family Holiday: My Prison in Paradise

2012-01-21T08:13:00.000-08:00

This is how I felt the entire time

We were going on a highly anticipated, once in a lifetime, family+boyfriend holiday to Thailand, for one month over Christmas and New Year!!!!!

Luckily I won't be able to bore you with all my 'amazing traveling experiences'.... because I had none.

D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R

It all went tit's up from day one. Turns out I'd booked my own mums name wrong on the ticket and she couldn't fly with us.... So my sister plus boyfriend and I had to wave her goodbye at Heathrow and hope she could get another flight soon. What kind of person gets their own mum's name wrong?
My brother (lets call him Bill) had been in Thailand for 3 months and greeted us when we arrived, then together we headed to the getto of Bangkok to wait for mother. . Less than 24 hours later my boyfriend suddenly and quite spontaneously decides he desperately needs to go 'find himself' and abandons me and the family holiday with no destination or explanation.

Obviously I completely understand and let him go into the world without me, thinking after a week of soul searching he'll get board.

Tumbleweed drifts by for 3 weeks........ All I could think of was my stupid boyfriend having a whale of a time, doing all the stuff we should have been doing together. But instead of love on sandy beaches, I was trapped by my family and mentality in the arse end of Thailand, the English equivalent of Boscombe.

Internal/mental/physical turmoil sets in.

To distract myself from this devastation, I spent my days as a recluse-locked away, customising postcards with religious paraphernalia as well as some of Phuket's finest entertainment and adventure brochures!

Some of what I was doing turns out to be actually very illegal and carries hefty sentences.

In Thai law all images of Buddha are sacred. Nothing bad can be said or done to do with the royal family either. We're talking 3-15 years in Thai prison here baby!

PHUK THAILAND

This is a personal favourite that

never made it through the boarder.

Complete with topless model straddling Buddha for breakfast, offerings of massive fish, money and the King crowned with their ladyboy's famous head adornments. PHUK could have got me in a lot of trouble.

Boring Thailand

Phuket dosen't look like this. It's covered from head to toe in beach chairs and umbrellas and massages and restaurants and tourists. There are elephants but they don't go on the beach.

Crab Attack

Here we have a Christmas scene

The crowning glory is the elephant fashioned into a penis.

Giant Fish Rescue Boat From Certain Death

Grow Old In Thailand

'Por The Hoar'

My brother spent 3 months 'traveling' Thailand but ended up living in a Lady Bar. He would make sure they were safe.

Apparently it's not as bad as it sounds, but what it sounds like is that my own brother But what it sounds like is he was living in a brothel. Depends what your into.

Considering we had traveled 6000 miles to see him and spent many months apart, he didn't really put much effort into being a good 'host'. Everything I wanted to do was rubbished, deemed too much effort or generally boring. I wasn't allowed to go out in the morning on my own because it was too dangerous, I wasn't allowed out at night on my own for the same reason. I wasn't allowed a mo-ped because even that was too dangerous ( my brother had come off his bike quite a few times drunk with potential wives or involving stray dogs, which have a tendency to appear in the road snarling rabidly) and I definitely definitely wasn't allowed to touch or even seem remotely interested in anything dead.

During my 'amazing' trip to Thailand, I sent 27 postcards, collected 7 squashed toads, a lizard, numerous comic books, religious and royal images +pretty stones and rocks. Only a few postcards made it through the boarder.....

On the 27th of Dec I was officially dumped.

I was officially 100% dumped by telephone conversation.

I swiftly made my plans to escape and I was back home safe in the arms of London the very next day!

So all in all it was pretty crap really.

I'd go as far as to say it's now at the top of my worst holidays ever. Previously the title was held by Australia in 2000. My second to last family holiday.

Remind me to talk about it when I see you.

Love from

Charlie Gates

I AM ON YOUTUBE

2012-01-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

Today was a big day...

CHARLIE TUESDAY GATES

The 3D Experience

I am now on Youtube where I shall be posting very random and off the cuff things that I do in the privacy of my own home. Today I did this...

Lizard Fingers

After the worst holiday in Thailand ever I came back with a bag of squashed toads and a part decomposing lizard. Everyone was shocked when they saw the booty so I was lucky customs didn't catch me. I am also lucky that I left that place alive after totally insulting Buddha and the King himself via postcard customization.

I sent out 27 postcards and so far only ten have made it back...

When I have the pictures I will tell the tail of how I escaped with my life.

Singing Badger

2012-01-09T14:33:00.000-08:00

I'll let the badger explain what happened....

This Badger is called Clare Farrell. She's been on the T.V and is being loving looked after by her name sake.

Thailand

2011-12-17T16:48:00.000-08:00

I am in Thailand...... Beautiful scenery.

We've driven past numerous cats and dogs that are everywhere dead by the side of the road, there was this incredible snake on the beach with a noose round it's neck...And all I am allowed to do is look....from afar. Because of course I am on the first family holiday in ten years and not an adventure of a lifetime. There's loads of jaw dropping roadkill here and I can't do anything about it.

All I'm allowed to do is pick up dried squashed toads.

I have to keep this secret from my family and hopefully eventually customs.

Where did this image come from

Obviously I haven't brought a camera to one of the most beautiful place in the world so have nothing to show of my 'adventures'

Any images I use are not mine-But the things might have looked quite a lot like that.

The places I have seen have been full of bloody tourists. I haven't seen one of those beaches that are clear of people. I don't think it's true. But if there is none then I have never been that fussed with the beach. I would rather be doing something than nothing. However I am currently with child (family of 3) that need constant care and attention.

I'm going to try and learn about Phuket now. Any advice greatly appreciated.

If you would like a postcard then send me your address and the brief message you would like to appear on the back- along with design inspiration. You have until January 4th to get those orders in.

charlietuesdaywinnergates@gmail.com

BIZARRE TAXIDERMY

2011-11-24T08:36:00.000-08:00

Alix Fox from Bizarre Magazine came round a few months ago. We had a great time at the bottom of my garden, opening up children's toy trunks full the dead things things I like to make sculptures out of... Somethings are obviously deeply offensive but viewed with a massive sense of humour it's fine.

I also showed her the ropes in regard to this D.I.Y Taxidermy stuff. Here we are in my studio having a gay old time. You really can do it yourself with things you have at home. Just use your imagination! ...That's all I had to work with.

It was really strange having people round poking fun at your stuff and taking hundreds of photos. It's hard letting people into the deeply private world of me and my animals. My art means a lot to me.... You'll have to dig a little deeper to find out why but it's in here I promise. I cover a lot of things up with humour- that's because I'm afraid I won't have anything intelligent enough to say. Comes from being surrounded by (') at university. That's right, I actually went and got an education. Amazing.

Many massive huge thanks to Alix Fox (puns of Steel) & Bizarre magazine and the photo man that I can't remember the name of (sorry). It really was a pleasure. Sorry if I came across as uptight.

***Available for all interesting offers of work- especially exhibitions, Live D.I.Y Taxidermy performances, T.V, film, weddings and bar mitzvah's!

Love from

Charlie Gates

Artist Talk: Verbal Diarrhoea

2011-11-16T04:14:00.000-08:00

TONIGHT!
(Wednesday 16th Nov 7pm)
The Doodle Bar

33 Parkgate Road

Battersea, SW11 4NP

'From the creator of D.I.Y Taxidermy LIVE we bring you a special event.

Charlie Tuesday Gates, ‘Taxidermist’, sculpture and performance artist will be talking about the inspirations behind her work and warped imagination.

This is a story of triumph over absurdity.
From humble beginnings growing up on a Army Camp rubbish dump, to big dreams of working on the shopping channel- Teaching herself taxidermy and then bringing it to the stage….all in the style of a crazed substitute teacher.….Who’s possibly maybe drunk.

This is a no holes barred talking & pictures event!

So if you feel like getting inside the mind of Charlie Tuesday Gates and experiencing verbal diarrhea of an artistic kind, then come on down this Wednesday 16th Nov. 7.15 pm
The Doodle Bar

This talk is FREE!

Love from
Charlie Gates
x

*** There will be no big words, lots and lots of pictures and of course booze.

TWITTER: http://twitter.com/goodnessgates
FACEBOOK:http://www.facebook.com/tuesdaygates

Artist talk at the Doodle Bar 16th Nov

2011-11-03T02:53:00.000-07:00

For those of you who feel like getting inside my brain for one night then come on down to the Doodle Bar 16th Nov!

I'll be regurgitating it- talking about the who's, what's, where's and how I come up with all these obscenities. My inspirations, what happened to me when I was young, deep and apparently meaning full stuff delivered with my own brand of humour.

So if you were to scared to see a live show, now is your chance to just come look and listen very safely. You can even ask questions to my face.

Follow everything all the time on TWITTER & FACEBOOK!

Love from
Charlie Gates
x

Time Out

2011-11-01T02:37:00.000-07:00

Lives less ordinary .....

London is jam-packed full of people who make a unique contribution to our city. This week we talk to Charlie Tuesday Gates, the taxidermist.

A pretty tomboy – in jeans, baggy T-shirt and floral-print baseball cap when we meet – Charlie Tuesday Gates is all bubbly vivacity and infectious laughter. Get her talking about animals, and her eyes twinkle in childlike wonder as she enthuses about their beauty. It’s almost easy to forget that you’re surrounded by death.

‘I got this for my birthday last year,’ she chirps, pulling a battered leather suitcase from a shed. ‘It’s the first thing I ever did. You might want to stand back,’ she says, flipping open the lid. ‘This one smells a bit.’ There’s an odour like a rugby team’s sweaty sock collection, and a dessicated fox’s remains jut from a pile of salt. With tail and nose still intact, legs thrust aloft, it could simply be playing dead. Except for the ribcage protruding from peeled-back skin. Next to it lies a kitsch purple, green and blue plastic coolbox. Inside, the antlers of a skinless deer’s head nudge a ram’s skull, which sits atop a pile of its own fur. A few pieces of flat, leather-like material turn out to be ‘the faces of some other deer’.

‘It was a complete accident, really,’ Gates explains. I bought a couple of bits of dead things, made them into pieces and said I was into taxidermy. Then all of a sudden, I got given the fox, and I thought: Oh, I’ve got to put my money where my mouth is.’ And how. Her studio is filled with previous exhibits, some created as parts of taxidermy shows and do-it-yourself workshops. A mummified pigeon perches atop a vintage pinball machine. A crocodile head smiles out from a glass jar. A mouldering seagull splays itself on a sideboard. And on a window ledge lies ‘Jordan’s Pussy’: a skinned cat that’s been salted until it’s shrivelled into a sparkly, crystalline figure, each vein scored into it like tiny stratum. Its eyeless skull stares out like the face in Edvard Munch’s ‘Scream’. From its mouth, a preserved tongue pokes insouciantly to one side.

‘It makes you appreciate animals in a different way,’ Gates suggests. ‘It’s really intimate. You understand life at a whole new level.’ She demonstrates on a magpie that a friend gave her. A quick nick with a scalpel and she’s pulling back skin as thin as a latex glove. Her voice drops in reverence as she points out ‘its beautiful colours’; ‘It’s like peeling an orange,’ she explains. At points, she even talks to it. ‘Come on, you,’ she urges, trying to peel the skin away from a leg, until eventually she’s popping the organless body into a shoe box filled with salt. ‘There’s something quite beautiful about him in there, just in his own little coffin.’ Beautiful? ‘Yeah, take the fox in the box. I had a little cry when I got him. It was really moving. Some people can see this as disrespectful, but I really appreciate their lives. In a weird way, I just want to make them live forever.’

Written by Alexi Duggins, photo by Rob Greig

THRILLING WONDER STORIES!

2011-10-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

I was asked to do a D.I.Y Taxidermy talk/demonstration at this event.

THRILLING WONDER STORIES
At the Architectural Asscoiation.

LIVE in NEW YORK & LONDON
Read all about it in this article by The Guardian
'..... This is the Architectural Association's third annual speculative sci-fi-inspired design jam, where architects are invited to think way out of the box, their imaginations cross-fertilised by "mad scientists, literary astronauts, design mystics, graphic cowboys, mavericks, visionaries and luminaries". They're not joking. Guests in London this Friday and Saturday (there's a parallel event in New York) include Vincenzo Natali, director of warped sci-fi movies Cube and Splice, author Bruce Sterling, taxidermy artist Charlie Tuesday Gates(hosting a live workshop) and special effects supremo Andy Lockley, the man who folded up Paris in Christopher Nolan's Inception, among other feats. It's the shape of things to come, you know.'

Dried out cat carcass with 'Damien' the lamb in the background.

In front of about 200 real life people and the web, I performed a very brief skin and stuff session. Bule Peter style presenting. A simple D.I.Y version of taxidermy- whilst simultaneously regaling tails of my strange animal related experiences, ideas and inspirations for the artwork. Surreal absurdism.

In the background is the image 'Jordan's Pussy' was based on. And in the even further back background is the beginnings of an inside out rabbit.

This was an interactive experience. Audience members were invited to be involved in the creation of a new artwork.

Hosted by

LIAM YOUNG (‘Tomorrows Thoughts Today’ and the AA’s ‘Unknown Fields Division’)

MATT JONES (‘BERG London’, Design technologists)
Photos by William Arthurs, editor/ Publisher of the London Society Journal
Other guest speakers included...

VINCENZO NATALI

Director of Splice, Cube, and forthcoming films based on

J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise and Neuromancer by William Gibson

BRUCE STERLING

Scifi author and futurist

KEVIN SLAVIN

Game designer and spatial theorist

ANDREW LOCKLEY

Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor for Inception and compositing/2D supervisor on Dark knight, Captain America and Children of Men

PHILIP BEESLEY

Digital media artist and experimental architect

CHRISTIAN LORENZ SCHEURER

Concept artist and illustrator for video games and films such as The Matrix,

Dark City, The Fifth Element, and Superman Returns

CHARLIE TUESDAY GATES

Taxidermy artist and sculptor, to lead a live taxidermy workshop

DR. RODERICH GROSS AND THE NATURAL ROBOTICS LAB

Head of the Natural Robotics Lab at the University of Sheffield,

to lead a live Swarm Robotics demonstration

GAVIN ROTHERY

Concept artist for Moon, directed by Duncan Jones

GUSTAV HOEGEN

Animatronics engineer for Hellboy, Clash of the Titans,

and Ridley Scott’s forthcoming film Prometheus

JULIAN BLEECKER

Designer, technologist, and researcher at the Near Future Laboratory

SPOV

Motion graphics artists for Discovery Channel’s Future Weapons and Project Earth

ZELIG SOUND

Music, composition, and sound design for film and television

RADIOPHONIC

Throughout the day we will be accompanied by Electronic Tonalities from Radiophonic

Love from

Charlie Gates

TIME OUT Halloween specail-Lives less ordinary

2011-10-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

Time Out came round.

Alexi Duggins and photographer Rob Greig to be precise.

Together Alexi and I skinned a magpie and chatted about what, why, how- the in's and out's of it all.

And here's the finished article. My studio, 'Number 11' and me on page 12.

A better version will appear one day spontaneously.

The magpie is now a beautiful headpiece.

More beautiful creations here....

Mind Like Magpie

PHOTOS: D.I.Y Taxidermy at Corsica Studio

2011-10-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

10 lucky people were picked at random for a special workshop with me.

When the guests arrived they got to choose their new pet.

In 2 hours, we skinned and stuffed our new fury friends.

Rabbits

WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?

Number 11. Rescued from a skip during lambing season.

'SILENCE OF THE LAMBS'

LIFE, DEATH, PRIZES!

Previously on Life, Death and Prizes...

Massive Katie Price fan.

See 'Jordan's Pussy'

Exotic Pets in the D.I.Y Taxidermy Workshop

Overall the workshop went well. These ten students really embraced the D.I.Y ethos - Using untraditional methods, inexpensive and accessible materials, we embarked on our journey through life and death... It was a bit like an after school club.
They were fantastic, a joy to teach!

Look at those smiles!

However the rabbits I had brought from the internet to stuff were in appalling condition.

I felt hideous about it. These creatures were intended to be fed to exotic pets like large snakes,
but these poor domesticated rabbits were obviously kept in appalling conditions all their lives. Most were skin and bones and many had injures like broken legs, arms, necks, skin conditions, cancer and missing ears where they had been fighting. These were mass produced commodities either intended to be pets or ground up for cheap dog food.

Their lives meant nothing and that made me so upset. However their lives were not completely wasted or meaningless. Instead of being fed to a snake or a dog they were introduced to people who wanted to learn about life through death and create something out of it. Educating people on some simple facts of unseen life.

I WILL NOT EVER EVER EVER BE USEING THIS COMPANY AGAIN. Only completely ethically sourced animals! I have these terrible visions of how they lived their lives..... In cramped conditions, survival of the fittest, broken legs because you have been stepped on and crushed. I can just imagine them being tossed around like rag dolls by people who have no respect for life. Oh God the internal torment. But people don't realise the reality of these situations and conditions and why should they. If it's not in your face then you don't think about it and now it's in mine.

What It Said On The Tin.....

2011-10-03T05:30:00.000-07:00

The D.I.Y Taxidermy show was FULL ON.

Described as:

''Intense' Morris Wild

'Truly awe inspiring and amazing!!!' Jack Wilkinson

Having to do a workshop back to back with a show was heavy. The most intense 9 hours of my life. Very stressful- a bit like internal bleeding.

I said some pretty funny stuff (funny in my head) but maybe my humour was too in the future sometimes with these extreme jokes...Jokes like the fact I don't like to wear gloves because it's like wearing a condom- you can't feel anything-

'Fox in a Box'

The other classic was a response to someone asking where this taxidermy started and I replied that it could have come from me accidently burying my gerbils alive...... or seeing my friend having sex with a dog-

Was this too far?

If you look at it in the sense that it was a PERFORMANCE from a crazy subsitute teacher who was really an artist then it was spot on. Spot on in the fact that it made no sense and it was the rambelings of a mad woman.

The raffle part was the best bit for me. I could feel in my heart the tempo dropped so in a fit of panic I spontaneously decided to give away everything stuffed that day as random prizes. One lucky winner got to take home a soggy rabbit for her birthday and I got everyone to sing to her which made me happy. Another young lady who came all the way from Brighton won the one on one session with me, she had made such effort and totally deserved to win. I perhaps shouldn't have mentioned my other prize idea of attaching a dildo to a hoof. Luckily I didn't start singing 'the hoof, the hoof, the hoof is on fire.....'

One lucky winner of' LIFE! DEATH! PRIZES!'

I rinsed myself too early with the workshop and that confused my tiny mind as it made me forget what I had and hadn't said when it came to the performance later. Should have thought about what I was saying more, but that's the thing about me-I don't think- I just do and I'm honest about that. I'm always honest no matter what. Too honest it would appear, shockingly honest. Honest to the point of self harm. But we live and learn and I learnt a lot from that show.

This is what I learnt: Don't obsess over having no time and get up at 7 in the morning after 5 hours sleep all weekend. Don't just eat salad and then drink and don't let people get to you or yourself. I always have massively high expectations but you can't get it right all the time and through getting things wrong you can put more right in the future and the future looks massive. NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM EXOTIC PETS! See previous blog about my extreme terror all through the workshop :(

What the winner did next.....

On the bus....

Making friends...

Photo contributions thanks to Morris Wild

*****Thanks to friends and family for enormous support. I put you guys through hell. Your all too amazing. No one in their right mind would do the things I do and you guys are still there cheering me on so so much thanks. Thanks to all the guys at Flee and Corsica Studios for providing a fantastic venue and support and thanks to the people who sat through something that went on just slightly too long. You legends!

Photos to follow through soon.

Love from

Charlie Gates

D.I.Y Taxidermy LIVE Oct 2nd Corsica Studios

2011-09-11T01:28:00.000-07:00

Yes that's right D.I.Y Taxidermy is back!
LIVE

SUNDAY 2ND OCT
6pm

CORSICA STUDIOS

Elephant and Castle
SE171LB

The 5th instalment of D.I.Y Taxidermy -This time we're going to town with lazers, smoke machines and wall to wall projectors.... not forgetting the all important stuffing.

D.I.Y TAXIDERMY:
A live demonstration, performance & artist talk all rolled into one.

'A bit like a biology lesson from your crazy substitute teacher...who is really an artist.'

In about an hour Gates talks an audience through her D.I.Y process (emphasis is heavily on the D.I.Y aspect). Delivered in a 'shopping channel' style, She gives you handy hints & tips for using basic everyday objects, where to source animal parts legally & personal preservation methods, giving a unique insight into this seemingly dark art and mind of an artist. The audience is encouraged to participate and generally be involved in the creation of a new artwork.

Here's what happened at the last one:

The venue opens at 2pm and during the daytime there's going to be a D.I.Y Taxidermy workshop where a small group of people will get my undivided attention. Places are limited and you can register interest here: charlietuesdaywinnergates@gmail.com.

Absolutely anyone can come and it starts about 3pm but the super exciting show is 6pmish. You'll be able to buy booze and stuff.

Twitter:@GoodnessGates

Facebook: Charlie Tuesday Gates Artist Person

Love from

Charlie Gates

Future Cinema does Lost Boys

2011-08-11T02:07:00.000-07:00

& I will be doing a D.I.Y Taxidermy workshop at this amazing interactive cinema event the 3rd Sept. Grandpas lodge will be re-created and inside you can genuinely get your hands dirty as you learn to skin and stuff an animal with me and Granpa too!

"FUTURE CINEMA BRINGS CALIFORNIA TO LONDON IN A SECRET LOCATION PRESENTING THE CULT FILMS “THE LOST BOYS
Future Cinema, the creators of Secret Cinema, announced two very special film experiences in partnership with California Tourism. “California Classics” will see 80s cult classics “The Lost Boys” (Saturday 3rd September) brought to life as Future Cinema transforms a secret site along the banks of the River Thames into the sunny shores of California. The weekend will allow the audience a unique opportunity to relive their favourite films from the 80s, in true California style.

The pioneers of Live Cinema, Future Cinema will fully immerse the audience in the films by bringing the beautiful beaches, surf and seaside amusements of California to the capital city. Fusing film, music, performance and design, “The Lost Boys” and “Top Gun” will welcome up to 4,000 guests per night dressed as their favourite characters from the films. Envision Top Gun naval aviators or angst-filled teenage vampires, an epic sing along and one of the biggest fancy dress events of the year.

Fabien Riggall, Founder and Creative Director of Future Cinema says: “Future Cinema brings films to life. We want you, the audience, to live inside the film and to help us create the wonderful world of these 80s cult films, ‘The Lost Boys’ and ‘Top Gun.’ We are really excited to be working with California Tourism who are the perfect partners to bring the culture of California to life.”

D.I.Y Taxidermy....The movie

2011-07-13T00:06:00.000-07:00

If you ever wondered what the Live D.I.Y Taxidermy shows were like then here is a very brief snippet.

Next LIVE show coming soon- Just need to find another suitable venue. If you have one then get in touch! I don't ask for much.... charlietuesdaywinnergates@gmail.com

Mowgli Skydiver music video

2011-07-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Mowgil Skydiver

Ages ago I was asked to create the set for a music video. There was a vague brief so I ran with it and created the most horrific scene I could. Never in my mind did I think I could come up with something so vile. The magnitude of this horror doesn't come across on the video.... It was properly sick- like being inside a modern version of that Texas Chain-saw Massacre house. Horrible horrible stuff on every surface. Everything you think is real really is real. Stinking deer skins were generously rubbed on the cast for added authenticity...lots of stuff was rubbed on the cast... but that had to be cut because it was too too wrong.

Jordan's Pussy

2011-06-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

Dried out pussy at the Modern Panic exhibtion. The gallery man sent a text which read "The piece formally known as Jordan's Pussy is leaking- It's a little disturbing...what should I do?"

Here's the picture that inspired my mind- Uncanny isn't it.

I'm going to tell a story about how it came about but it's not going to be very nice so if you like cats you probably won't like this.....

One evening in May my mother and I were driving home. Suddenly I started to scream. To my amazement, surprise and despair, there by the side of the road appeared to be the most magnificent feline I had ever seen! Recently hit, the only obviously mark was to the head and a slightly bloodied tong, rigamortis was just setting in and his eyes hadn't gone cloudy yet. He was huge! Someone had obviously loved him very much.

But what is the right thing to do................................?

I decided to write a note and say I buried it then quickly bundled the cat into the back of the car and we sped away. I had been dreaming of this moment for so long. I couldn't believe my enormous luck. God really was shining on me today.

Within an hour we were home and I ran inside screaming with excitement, dead cat swinging in my arms. Little did I know my brother’s new girlfriend had chosen today to meet the family.….

I said my most normal and polite ‘hello’, then left the poor girl traumatized in the lounge. I took my new pet to the shed at the bottom of the garden and it was here alone in the silence that I was able to fully take in the magnitude of this situation. Excitement was replaced by grief and sorrow. I felt intensely for the life that was lost but also found beauty in such stillness. Intimate moments like this don’t come around often and it is impossible not to get emotional.

Pets have a magical quality because they make you feel things about them. They are close to your heart, they are your friends. You love them.

This creature had for some reason been taken away from this love and in a bizarre twist of fate, passed on to me ... I had a responsibility- I was not going to waste this life. I would make it live forever!

The next day I skinned him and spontaneously shoved my hand inside its head, turning him into some sort of living/dead puppet. We stared at each other for a while and then began to sing! It was just bizarre watching it’s face move and contort with every over enthusiastic note. This moment of insanity was recorded but can never be shown. It can never be seen because the cat lovers of the world will crucify me. It is very much hardcore. Maybe in a few years the world will be ready for Meow but 100% not now.

After the puppet incident I turned my attention to the carcass. I put the body into the most cat like pose I could imagine. It began to look uncannily like something I had seen before- that wonderful catalogue shoot Katie Price aka Jordan did on a beach once.

Beautiful

I am a massive Katie Price fan. I was supposed to audition for her special programe 'Discovered By Katie' But I missed my appointment.

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

2011-06-17T15:30:00.000-07:00

Three crudely preserved lambs stood silently on garish Astroturf topped plinths for 2 weeks at the recent Modern Panic exhibition. It was rather fittingly at the old abattior in Farringdon. Loads of great artists involved.

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS was better in the flesh and also when penned into their (yet to be made) vitrines.

Damien

This poor creature died mysteriously. All was well the night before but the next day he was out cold. No noticeable signs of anything suspicious. After skinning and filling with expanding foam, I sliced him in three and Damien was born.

Expanding foam is pretty volatile stuff. Massive growth like forms erupted from where I snagged the skin. However there was minimal damage and he filled out quite nicely. The amazing thing about Damien is his tail is pre-docked and poor balls are in the middle of being suffocated off. Horny things were just starting to form, leaving two empty circles in his forehead when I cut them out. Half a plastic water bottle replaced the skull leaving a hollow head, horns and eyes, with the blue lid poking out it’s mouth like a backwards teat. Poor little sucker.

With 'Damien', I hope people can see the obvious references to Hirst.

Number 11

A good friend’s favorite who died during the laming season and rescued from a skip. He was brought back to life at the 3rd live D.I.Y Taxidermy exhibition:‘Back From The Dead’.

After drying out in various inappropriate places around the house and hiding inside hand luggage, his body twisted and distorted, the facial expression gradually deteriorated into something that looks like perpetual despair; Screaming/dying and crying all at once. Not very nice at all really. Pretty fitting for the Modern Panic exhibition.

The Lambinator

Another skip job from the lambery. Another play on words.

I use 'humour' to lighten the mood, it's the only way I can deal with the enormous heartache I feel sometimes. I use these materials for that very reason though- Because it stirs my soul, it makes me think and feel deeply about life and death.

How I would explain it to myself is basically I like to do and create weird stuff in ways that I shouldn't....I go down a level into the darkness. Through it I am strangely connected to something outside of this world....If that makes any sense. I'm going to stop writing now as I feel I could start going on about something and loose my mind to it in front of you

Lastly more photos of the whole show can be found here on Facebook

Many photo thanks to Paul Douglas

Love from

Charlie Gates

LIFE! DEATH! PRIZES!

2011-06-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

Raffle tickets I knocked up for

LIFE! DEATH! PRIZES!

Part of the 4th LIVE D.I.Y taxidermy event

Lucky ticket buyers had the chance to win a deer's foot attached to the end is a grater (this foot was found whilst going through the gamery bin, that's where they put them when they get chopped off). 1st prize was a freshly stuffed rabbit and these indervidual collages in nice little frames.http://charlietuesdaygates.blogspot.com/2011/05/diy-taxidermy-with-diesel.html is where you can read all about it.

At the next live taxidermy - 'LIFE! DEATH! PRIZES!' is going to be even better, with even bigger and wilder prizes....

If you couldn't believe your eyes before, you won't have any after this.

MODERN PANIC!!!!

2011-06-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

Completely forgotten to mention this!

49 Artists plus myself starting 5th June

Private view 4th June

Rest of the world until the 12th

At the old abattoir! How fittings that! The pieces I've included are....

The Lambinator

Number 11

Damien

Brought together for the first time in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

The Lambinator

Also appearing dead

'Jordan's Pussy' but has also been known as '"That's My Cat!"

Special thanks to James Elphick

All at Guerrilla Zoo, obviously the other artists and the incredible people who really help me out pretty much all of the time.

Go here for better artist information:

http://www.guerrillazoo.com/modern-panic

And then come see the show!

D.I.Y Taxidermy with Diesel

2011-05-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

Mind Like Magpie

www.mindlikemagpie.com

www.dianajarvisphotography.co.uk

I was deeply nervous for about a week before the show. Crippling sleep loss type stuff. Nerves have never got me before. I just blank it out and don't think about the performance till I’m in it- It's complete spontaneous improvisation. I never know what I'm going to do. I find if you plan things then they go wrong. If you don't then everything is a bonus and surprise.

I felt very differently this time. I started to over think, plan and stress about the show and I put a lot of mental pressure on myself. Worrying about what I was going to say- Would I even have anything to talk about? What if I was rubbish? Usual stuff.

After a week I decided this was silly and to get over myself. I always have something to say! The fear was replaced by my normal emotions. I wanted this D.I.Y Taxidermy to have somthing extra . Stuffing animals wasn't enough.

Lightening struck a few days before the event in the form of Chat Magazine!

LIFE! DEATH! PRIZES! That's the title of this issue. Genius. What brilliant inspiration for a raffle! Another interactive dimension to the whole D.I.Y.T experience. Life is cheap after all! Now I had to make original prizes. ....Luckily I was visiting the gamery that day and found 5 deer feet in a bin. They were crying out for utensils to be stuck on the end. I settled on a grater... my mum suggested a vibrator. Here is one happy winner!

www.dianajarvisphotography.co.uk

Together with a few keen audience members, we peeled a mouse and rat then skinned, salted and stuffed a rabbit with all the mod cons; wire, salt and sanitary towels- in under an hour!

This was the most sober I have ever been whilst doing a show. I had one bottle of beer. Usually I hide and drink in silence, saving it for the stage. But this time I had nowhere to hide and no free bar!!! I have a tendency to hyperactivity if other substances do not suppress it...

I was feeling extra super pumped. I knew in my mind how I wanted to be-like one of those hardcore shopping channel lady hosts- Overly passionate, really full on and bizarrely compelling. I started off a bit normal. Some basic tips and techniques, also dropping in the fact that I was single (still am) and then the floodgates opened…With little more than a Britney microphone attached to my head, a scalpel and some dead pets, I gave that audience everything I had! I became intentional and purposeful verbal diarrhoea. A constant stream of energetic and hugely enthusiastic chatter, arms and legs flailing about. I laid myself on a plate and was totally honest about the horrific depths I go to. It is extreme. It is weird to keep a room full of rotting animals at a high temperature....but when your fascinated with somthing you want to find out about every single thing about it! I told the audience about my secret thoughts and of the things I do when no one's looking. ... I told them of my tears over the horror and my war wounds I have suffered for my art. I even told them about the cat. My mother came for the first time and asked if I had been taking speed. But that's just what happens when you put someone on stage with a mild hyperactivity disorder and intense passion.

After this bizarre episoide I revealed the mystery star prize for the raffle.....The freshly stuffed rabbit! Yes, one lucky member actually got to take it home that night. Now thqt's entertainment!!!!

Overall nothing went wrong...No one threw paint at me. There were no awkward questions, everybody seemed to enjoy themselves and I came out completely alive! After it was all over I felt weird and extremely hyperactive. A mixture of fullness and emptiness all at once. It seems like all your life builds up to one moment, and when that moment has gone what do you do with all the other moments and that extra energy??? What do you do with all the extra head room? What's next? Where is my next kick coming from? What my new reason to live? It feels like you can never achieve enough. You have to start the exhausting process again and again, making bigger goals for yourself. Constantly pushing forward, inventing things to do with all of this whatever this is you have inside yourself. Creating your reason to live.

I was asked by a film person where this was going? What was the future of D.I.Y Taxidermy. I was stumped?! I've never thought about these things. Maybe we'll have a nice sit down meal or auction myself out for a one on one.

More photos can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Charlie-Tuesday-Gates-Artist-person/136474813038151
Review: http://www.thelondonword.com/2011/05/charlie-tuesday-gates-taxidermy/

Love from

Charlie Gates

Internet Dating

2011-05-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

I used to be a hardcore serial internet dater on and off for about 5 years. I did them all- Plenty of Fish, Guardian Soulmates, E-Harmony, Forget Dinner. I was a massive fan of Gumtree dating but the site got closed down because of all the weirdo's ; ). I used to like taking my dates to the Hunterian Museum (http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums).
Many things have come out of these random experiences-One guy contacted this year but he didn't have that special something. Weeks later he contacted me again saying he was a photographer- yeah right. I decided to believe him and meet him to talk about a doing some potential shoot- the front cover for 'Le Cool'. I decided I was feeling cool and to go ahead and do it. He wanted to go on location to some wasteland in East London.

The day of the shoot he came to my garage to collect the stuff. I've never seen any one gag so much in all my life! Every time he got a whiff he pretty much started to cry. The photo shoot consisted of me and a friend tossing a rotten deers head to each other, Canary Wharf in the background, weird internet man snapping away... I thought this whole thing was just a big elaborate plan to kill me but it turns out it was true! He really was a photographer and the deer photo made it to the front cover.

http://spoiledmilk.lecool.com/london/en/interview/742

He wasn't really that weird. He was very normal. I was the one with a garage full of rotting animals tucked away in south london....

BIZARRE MAGAZINE + Taxidermy Workshop

2011-04-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

The beautiful Alix Fox of Bizarre Magazine came to D.I.Y Taxidermy III- Back From The Dead and then months later, this showed up in the magazine!

Bizarre Magazine April-May 11

NEXT.........

D.I.Y TAXIDERMY IIII

TUESDAY 3RD MAY

RED GALLERY

3 Rivington Street- Shoreditch

6-9pm

FREE TICKETS CAN BE COLLECTED FROM ANY DIESEL STORE- ask inside for details....

Other news:

Taxidermy Workshop

I held my first D.I.Y taxidermy workshop last weekend at the Fish Bar Gallery, Dalston. I am working on the feature film 'BORROWED TIME'- A dark comedy written and directed by Jules Bishop. The workshop was a one off making session/lesson, creating stuffeds to be used in the home of one of the main characters- PHILLIP: A bitter, twisted and lonely old bastard…with only a bizarre collection stuffed animals to keep him company....

This D.I.Y taxidermy crash course took twelve real people inside several squirrels and demonstrated how to stuff them using alternatives to traditional materials and techniques which can often be elusive, expensive and time consuming!

The workshop offered very practical examples on how to use simple materials creatively, proving that it really can be done with just the basic things you have in your cupboards right now!!!

Love from

Charlie Gates

When is D.I.Y Taxidermy IIII?

2011-04-07T03:30:00.000-07:00

D.I.Y Taxidermy IIII
LIVE

Tuesday 3rd MAY

RED Gallery

Rivington street

The 4th live demonstration, performance, exhibition & artist talk all rolled into one.

'A bit like a science lesson from a substitute teacher...who is really an artist.'

In about an hour I will talk the audience through my D.I.Y process (emphasis is heavily on the D.I.Y aspect). Delivered in a 'shopping channel' style, I'll give you handy hints & tips for using basic everyday objects, where to source animal parts legally & personal preservation methods, giving a unique insight into this seemingly dark art and mind of an artist.

The audience is encouraged to participate and generally be involved in the creation of a new artwork.

An exhibition will run alongside the show, displaying surreal and bizarre assemblage sculptures of recent finds.

The animals are always refuse! I am disgusted by waste, especially the waste of life- the most precious gift of all! These creatures have been thrown away, their useful parts stripped and then tossed in the bin, as if their life meant nothing. In my head I am saving them, bringing awareness and insight into the other side of an industry, informing people to a degree on some simple facts of unseen life.

This life has become throwaway, just another commodity and product of consumerism.

I am not a conventional taxidermist but an artist interested in exploring the realities of death.

This subject has drawn me further and further in. Before I started all this I did love animals, but now I find them and life in general so much more fascinating. really really amazing. Creatures are so much more beautiful and I appreciate and respect life so so much more. There are some real tragedies out there and it’s horrible. I’m just making something strange and beautiful out of something that would have otherwise been forgotten and needlessly wasted.

I'm still thinking of a good title for the exhibition...Suggestions to charlietuesdaywinnergates@gmail.com

What's next?

2011-03-16T05:23:00.000-07:00

People have been asking and asking when the next show is. All I can say is soon. Need to remain mysterious. However don't cloak that mysterious venue from me and please please get in touch if you have or know of a suitable space. I'm always looking for places that will have me ;)

What else? About to start working on a feature film with Jules Bishop called 'BORROWED TIME'. He won funding from the Microwave scheme, Plan B has just finished making his film with them too.

http://microwave.filmlondon.org.uk/get_inspired/borrowed_time/directors_vision/directors_vision

Breaking news from the past:
I got kicked out of the old people's home for 'processing animals'. Pretty sure that wasn't in the contract but oh well. I'll go into more harrowing detail soon but somone is shouting at me in the libiary and I only have 4 mins of air time left.

Love from
Charlie Gates
x

THE INDEPENDENT!!!!!

2011-03-09T09:08:00.000-08:00

Today I got a phone call from a friend saying I was in the new i Independent newspaper! Amazing surprising news!

THE INDEPENDENT ART

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/taxidermy--this-hobby-is-dead-cool-2236663.html

Taxidermy - this hobby is dead cool

Once dismissed as a Victorian throwback, taxidermy is now hot stuff. Enjoli Liston speaks to the artists who are bringing it back – and tries it out for herself

Wednesday, 9 March 2011

'Artist Charlie Tuesday Gates is smiling as she stands poised, scalpel in hand, over the lifeless body of a lamb. This is “DIY Taxidermy”, the increasingly popular evening class that is not for the faint-hearted. Within the hour, Gates will teach an eager audience of around 80 students the basics of skinning a lamb and stuffing it with household objects, while they sip wine and make polite conversation.

Over the past five years, British taxidermy has enjoyed a popularity revival that has seen the craft move from the stuffy world of macabre Victorian curios to the cutting edge of Brit art.

And now, oversubscribed classes such as this one (more than 200 people applied for tickets to this session) are popping up in London and New York, offering crash-courses that take centuries- old rural traditions of taxidermy and move them into urban galleries for an extreme version of do-it-yourself crafting. “I’m cutting from the head to the tail along the spine, because that’s what the YouTube video I watched told me to do,” Gates jokes, as she carefully makes her first incision down the lamb’s back. She uses a £4 knife bought in an art shop (it must have a curved blade, she stresses, or it will butcher the lamb’s delicate skin).

It’s not exactly the authoritative instruction one might expect from an expert teacher, but Gates does not profess to be a professional. She is an artist and self-taught “DIY taxidermist” who learnt the basics through a dead fox that her brother found for her last year. The interactive demonstrations started as performance-art pieces soon after her first encounter with the fox, and now they encourage complete beginners to stop watching and start taking part.

She is keen to differentiate her work from that of a professional taxidermist. “Real taxidermy is a painstaking scientific art which preserves the illusion of life in a natural habitat, but I’m more interested in the reality of death,” she says. Whatever the term for Gates’s form of taxidermy, both the professional and amateur processes involve skinning and stuffing a dead creature.

It may sound morbid, yet, surprisingly, this class is not. There are probably as many rubberneckers in the room as genuine enthusiasts, but there is a palpable air of respect for the process. And no, the body doesn’t smell, because it’s fresh. Instead, there is a metallic taste in the air. Sometimes it sets the teeth on edge, as if you’re chewing tin foil.

Gates stresses that the lamb died of natural causes and was donated to her by a friend. She emphasises the importance of sourcing animals ethically, but says taxidermy still carries a stigma despite audience if any animal-rights activists are present and planning to throw paint at her. “

Some people still think of taxidermists as murderers who kill their specimens and hunt endangered species,” says Martin Dunne, who is the chairman of the British Historical Taxidermy Society. “But this perception is changing as taxidermy becomes more popular.

“There are stringent laws about the animals taxidermists can use [they cannot be endangered, must be found dead and must not have died in suspicious circumstances]. The “new age” taxidermy practiced by artists helps increase the public’s awareness of that.”

The star of this “new age” is Polly Morgan, whose work is collected by everyone from Banksy to Damien Hirst. Her pieces, which remove animals from their natural habitats (therefore also putting them at odds with traditional taxidermy), can fetch up to £100,000.

Morgan says renewed interest in taxidermy isn’t about fashion. She says there is nothing morbid about a fascination with taxidermy, and that it is becoming increasingly popular because people are naturally curious about it – especially those who live in urban areas.

“It’s one of the most natural things in the world to want to study living forms,” she says. “Taxidermy is very closely related to the study of biology, and no one would say an interest in that is morbid. “As fewer schools teach dissection now, childhood curiosities about the way that bodies work aren’t satisfied. Taxidermy is about a kind of physical interaction that people who live in urban environments don’t tend to get anymore.”

Morgan and Gates had rural upbringings and childhood fascinations with animals. (“I was always picking dead stuff up from the side of the road as a child,” says Gates.) But unlike Gates, Morgan started by attending a £150 lesson with a professional taxidermist and has carefully honed her craft since. She says she would have loved to attend a free group lesson likeGates’s when she was learning but they simply didn’t exist.

She is modest about the impact of her work on the renewed public interest in taxidermy, but Morgan does admit that it has been an inspiration to young artists – like Amanda Coban, a final-year undergraduate studying fine art and illustration at the University of Coventry. She made a three-hour round trip to attend Gates’s class because her course doesn’t cover taxidermy and she “wanted to learn the tricks of the trade”.

After watching Gates skin the lamb, rub a bag of kitchen salt into the skin, drape it around a “body” structure made from wire, and stuff it with cotton wool, Coban helped her sew up the original incision along the spine. Key point to remember: don’t pierce the guts while you’re at it – it’s not pretty.

“I have used animal body parts in my art, but I’ve never had the confidence to preserve a whole form,” Coban says. “It’s a lot easier, cheaper and more accessible than I thought it would be. I feel like I can pick up that dead fox I saw on the side of the A45 the other day, and actually treat it myself.”

This confidence, Gates says, is what she enjoys instilling in the people who attend her classes. “I like showing people that taxidermy doesn’t have to be a mysterious or dark art. It’s easy and accessible. Anyone can give it a stab.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/taxidermy--this-hobby-is-dead-cool-2236663.html

D.I.Y Taxidermy III: The Future Gallery!

2011-02-24T15:42:00.000-08:00

The response from the show was immense.

Some people loved it and as usual, some people hated it. I know there was some purists out there who were perhaps not expecting what they saw but the clue is in the title. D.I.Y really does mean D.I.Y. There was a good few taxidermists out in the audience who approached me and said they loved it too which was a surprise! I'm always most worried about them because I know I'm not doing it the 'traditional' way and that can be quite insulting for a craftsman/woman. Like a builder might feel about a cowboy. However I hate being told what to do and how to think and am far happier making it up with more varied and interesting outcomes!

Number 11

(Unamed photos by Nathan Whitham)

For me there is nothing more boring than things turning out as expected...obviously I admire skill and craftsmanship...but we all have to make our own way in the world and I have chosen this one.

The audience was brilliant. I like to think we had a rapport..... Loads of audience participation.

In terms of the performance, I was literally making it up as I went along. I'm better at the freestyle stuff. I find that the more you think about things the more it builds up in your head and you worry. I find if you plan things and then they go wrong it can mess you up even more- so it's best not to plan and to start from nothing and anything that comes out of it is a total bonus! It was just me rattling on about my stories and how I came to do this whilst at the same time taking apart a baby lamb and seagull.

The seagull was terrible but I blame the fact it wasn't so fresh. The baby lamb (number 11) came out a corker. He was pulled out of a stinking bin by a friend who worked at a lamber for a while. He was beautiful. I cried a little before the show over him. You know you have good friends when they do things like that for you.

There was one comment left by someone that went a little something like : ‘ Tripe-When the ‘artist’ was asked to explain the reasons and inspiration behind the work she was unable to answer apart from that she’s always been interested in dark stuff’

Well that’s true. It was tripe if you had expectations. It was a total balls up- but that’s part of my charm (so I have been told)!

Well you asked for it.

Where does it come from? I struggled with this for years. Art is the most personal thing. After uni I worked in secret. I got put off by having to explain myself all the time, and having my guts ripped out by people who could never understand.

That's Not my Dog

I have never been very good at expressing myself verbally. It scares me. Revealing things like that is unnatural- but expressing them through form and with objects is instinctual.

Why do I make them? Because I must make them. It is so engrained inside me, I am compelled to create- constantly seeking some form of self-expression. I cannot help what comes naturally and the act of creating something out of nothing comes naturally. It is a compulsion, instinct, and intuition. Whatever you want to call it.

Indian Giver

I do not question these things/ my actions/ outcomes because when I do, it distorts my creative process, messes with my mind. It becomes contrived and less honest. The less I think about it the better my outcomes. Fully embracing the unconscious and automatic compulsions, I create based on pure feeling.

Christine Chambers

I have visions. I see things in my head and then I make them. It is only after they are made that I can go back through and over and see what is going on in the depths of my soul. It is dark and surreal and weird and complete nonsense most of the time. These unconscious urges and compulsions have very real and conscience beginnings. Those beginnings I choose to block out because it is a lot easier to detach from than to come to terms with them, and the things I have had to come to terms with are a strange and traumatic childhood. I didn’t realise this but I was coming to terms with them through my art.

I was escaping through art and it became the only way I could express my feelings and myself- it still is.

The Lambinator

The exhibition is purely about me- it is like a visual biography of how I fell and have felt through my life. The objects I have chosen to surround myself with are a reflection of me and the things that have happened in my past. I cannot escape them and I am compelled to recreate them.

I don’t want that to be the reason but it is. I wish I had something intelligent to say But I am not that person. I am a creative force that needs to get all this bottled up shit out somehow other wise I’ll have a mental breakdown It’s happened before!

If that is not an artist then I don’t know what is? Surly it is expression from a base point level. I am a basic person. I don’t pretend to be something that I am not and I don’t hide behind big words because I can’t. All I want to do is be free to create the things that I feel and if people are interested then that’s great.

My entire energy and force is poured into being creative- into making things. Though the years I'm sure it will get more refined and I will find better ways to express myself.
Special Thanks to John at The Future Gallery for making this event possible, Nathan Whiteham for photo's and providing the camera and also Alex Milan for photos, as well as my friends and family who put up with this quite disturbing hobbie!

You can see more of the photos here:

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y102/nathancallahero/Charlie%20Gates%20Future%20Gallery/?action=view&current=DSC_0021.jpg
Many massive thanks to John at the Future Gallery.
http://www.theoldmilkfloat.co.uk
Love from
Charlie Gates
x

D.I.Y Taxidermy III: Back From The Dead- LIVE

2011-02-03T03:57:00.000-08:00

Amazingly Future Gallery has agreed to show the next LIVE D.I.Y taxidermy show!!!
There's going to be a live stream with a big screen and everything. I promise this one won't smell as much ....

On Wednesday 23rd Febuary....

Charlie Tuesday Gates presents:

D.I.Y Taxidermy III: Back From The Dead LIVE

Doors open 6pm- Resuscitations from 8

Future Gallery

5 Great newport Street

WC2H 7JB

In her 3^rd LIVE D.I.Y taxidermy show she will be ‘Dicing with Death’- getting inside the creatures you have grown to know and love her own D.I.Y style. Stuffing obscenities right in front of your very eyes….

***** Absolutely NOTHING was harmed on purpose or even accidently on purpose. All animals were FOUND dead or they are refuse from the game or farming industry. These beautiful creatures have been saved, their discarded lives not left to rot at the bottom on a bin liner.

----------------

‘Dark, tongue-in-cheek, fairly sick and utterly compelling’ Spoonfed

'Charlie Gates is fast becoming one of the UK's most talked about young artists. Her work is thought provoking and bold, and to many, extremely distasteful' Notion Magazine

--------------------------------

B.Y.O ROADKILL!!!

"I actually find it a bit disturbing"

2011-01-27T07:07:00.000-08:00

I got a complaint today from a housemate. I live in a care home for old people so there are loads of random rooms. I'd taken one over as a special 'death room' where I could keep rotting corpses lying around without fear of persecution.... I moved it all to the room opposite the swimming pool because there is a much nicer view......but unfortunately the smell got out into the gym and I was discovered! Now me and my lambs are on the run......

I've got one more teeny tiny baby in the freezer waiting to be reborn.

NEXT STUFFING

2011-01-27T03:18:00.000-08:00

People have been asking when D.I.Y Taxidermy III will be....
Well I say spring at the latest. I have soo much great stuff from Dorsecore...just not a venue in London- so if you have one and you want an exhibition and a show in it then let me know.
charlietuesdaywinnergates@gmail.com

Here is a list of the great stuff I have for stuffing so far:

Baby baby lamb
Giant pigs head
Squirrel
Seagull from Brighton
Pheasants
Goldfish

All these things were lawfully obtained by friends and family alike. I have the best friends.

Another interesting thing is I have now actually read a book on the subject. Yes I branched out and broadened my horizons. It was good to know that intuition goes a long long way...but also a sturdy background means the foundations won't crack in the future. So now I know more of what I'm actually doing instead of just fumbling round in the dark parts of my mind.

The 'Lambinator'

2011-01-22T09:53:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine has started work as a 'Lamber'. Basically making sure baby lambs are ok. Lots aren't because they are taken away from their mums at 3 days old. Pretty young but this is usual practice even in 'organic' places. Loads die. Loads and loads- mainly because they are taken away so young or they get special lamb diseases or because they are small and runty. The ones that die get thrown in a giant bin- huge-a massive stinking bin overflowing with baby lives. This giant bin of baby's then gets burnt somewhere secret.

These were rescued for me. One is 3 days old and the other just a week. So today I skinned the older one for a future art something. The smaller I have saved for the next live D.I.Y Taxidermy III

It's tummy was all bloated and yuck where it has started to fill with methane gas.That's the smelly stuff. NEVER PEIRCE THE GUT!!!!!

An advert for those animal rights people

And here is the lamb without it's body, hung from the washing line. All I need to do now is wash it and then stuff it somehow. That's for tomorrow.

Notion Magazine Dec 2010

2011-01-20T08:46:00.000-08:00

I've got the notion finally

This was page 42 of Notion Magazine from way back in December. A charming young lady to came to Dicing With Death and then wrote this:

So that was nice.

Bloody hard to read on here.

Full story p42

http://theenvironment.vfolio.co.uk/notion/68/

----------------------

I finally have a video from D.I.Y Taxidermy II: Dicing With Death! It's not here - It still needs uploading...but it's hard technically to understand.... I also have footage of the SURREAL NIGHTMARES installation at SHUNT... but that's even more elusive technically. It's all highly technical. It's my own fault for basically not doing things for myself which I should- Which I am. I brought a memory card and everything.

Lost Photos from Dicing With Death

2011-01-07T06:51:00.000-08:00

BIRD HOUSE. I rescued the house from my mothers garden then turned it into a center where freakish birds preyed on other birds, catching them with eggs and sparkles, leaving half eaten bird corpse's to fester in various conditions and states of decay. It was about 9ft high. Pretty massive and really heavy. Bursting with bust up birds.

Expedition

Popular Culture

Oh Deer

2011-01-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

After the Excitement of TIME OUT, Christmas and New year were for resting. I did nothing until I got a message from Angela Watrouse, an American writer in London briefly to research the life and work of Victorian taxidermist Walter Potter. She got in touch wondering if I would be doing any taxidermy before she left for America and wanted to witness/semi-participate as to effectively write about Potter, to get a true sense of the sensory details-smells, the way the animals feel ect.

I wasn't planing on doing anything but sticking to my new years resolution I said yes. The only thing I had was the head of a Stag, shot before Christmas and left in my freezer. Bit of a tricky one for a first timer but might as well start at the deep end.

The giant bloody head didn't seem to phase her so after a little bit of explaining about where to cut, I let her rip! We cut along the underside of the chin type area and then worked back from there. You can see where the skin and the muscle are different colours. You want to get the white bit off and leave all the red bits on the physical head without tearing. That's the aim.

This is where the head was lopped off. Tossed into the animal dustbin. No one there give a s**t what happens once all the meat has been taken off and out. Everything uneatable is thrown away. I rescued it from a stinking bin.

Inside out and upside-down mouth

So there you have it. Face off. Currently this is now in a spare room in the Care Home. I have one for myself, one for sculptures which smell and one room entirely for decomposing casualties. The old people smell goes with it perfectly.

The Care Home where I live could be the perfect place for the next exhibition, making installations in the ex old people's rooms. There's hundreds of them. The only thing is it is in Wimbledon...but that's only 20mins from Waterloo. Not sure how my house mates will feel about live D.I.Y Taxidermy going on in the dining room but we'll see. Late Jan Early Feb???

Magazine stuff, exciting stuff- next stuffing after SPRING 2011

2010-12-15T03:39:00.000-08:00

TIME OUT Christmas issue p24-26

'Charlie Gates is fast becoming on of the UK'S most talked about young artist.' Notion Magazine, Dec p42
http://theenvironment.vfolio.co.uk/notion/68/

Front cover of Design Week magazine in November

NEXT D.I.Y TAXIDERMY SPRING 2011

Dicing With Death

2010-12-09T05:28:00.000-08:00

Bonjour

Here is a selection of photos from D.I.Y Taxidermy II: Dicing With Death, which have only just come to light. Physical writing about the show & event is a few posts below- It was really dark so picture colour not amazing.

Salting the wounds

What I keep in my suitcases-never borrow one from me

Keep Away From Idiots

Look What The Stork Brung!

It's clearly funny to draw genitals on children

Work space

Christine Chambers

A real stinker. Lots of people didn't realize that the skins in this were really fresh and completely untreated.....Thus resulting in the hideous stench of death.

Little Bow Peep got eaten by sheep

Close up from 'Bird House'

A Scientist

Fox In The Box

Well turned out member of the audience having a stab

'Performance space'

If anyone has anymore photos from the event please e-mail them to charlietuesdaywinnergates@gmail.com because I haven't taken any......
Love from
Charlie Gates
x

FREAKS! TIME OUT & Music videos with rappers!

2010-12-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

Next show FREAKS Shoreditch Basement Gallery, Shoreditch Town Hall. Thursday 9th Dec

I've been so massively busy. More busy then ever. Had 3 shows back to back in November; D.I.Y TaxidermyII:Dicing With Death at Counter Culture, Surreal Nightmares at Shunt and then Ishihara 14 at the Queen of Hoxton...and I had to move house as well. Full on.

Been working on a music video for MOWGLI- That hip-hop rapper dude. Nice guy. I was given a kitchen to dress. They wanted me to create this macabre taxidermists lair, animals and shit lying around. I made the most disgusting set ever. Proper dark with all the weird stuff I love. The camera man said it was the most impressive set he'd ever seen! Pictures soon.

Another production studio borrowed some stuff for a film they were doing. Dinner party gone wrong sort of thing, I couldn't be there but apparently it went well.....

And the next and most amazing thing is tomorrow I'm going to TIME OUT to do something for their Christmas issue! Yes, that massive magazine you've heard of! I'm supposed to be teaching people D.I.Y taxidermy. Giving you all the tools to get started yourself.... This really will be a blind leading the blind situation.
A lovely woman Simone came from the TIME OUT press section to my last show and thought it would make a great storey.....She is well aware that I am not a taxidermist, just an enthusiast. So tomorrow I am off with my scalpel. There was talk of having some work for the front cover.....

I also replied to my first 'fan mail' today.
Love from
Charlie Gates
x

Dicing With Death

2010-11-17T16:29:00.000-08:00

You can sense and smell death before you see it.... A smell like no other. It is far sweeter than you imagine and lingers for days after the body has been removed. This smell has come to be part of the experience of my work....Some people have been sick after entering the exhibition space where I have been but I think that's just the really sensitive people. You get used to it

Dicing With Death was ...well I was nervous. Every time someone asked me how I was feeling I felt worse because they made me actually acknowledge how I was feeling and I was trying my hardest to shut it away. The more you think about things the more obsessed and worried you can become so I try and avoid that by not thinking at all. Gut instinct stuff. So to start off the 'performance' (which was more like a science lesson from a supply teacher who had only read notes before the lesson,) I got out the famous rat in bloody vodka water. It smelt worse than ever. It even smelt through the jar it's in. Then came the rabbit and the dear head which, when I skinned, actually came off better than expected! I was surprised as I thought it would be harder. Then I asked for volunteers- anyone want to have a stab? And people did! There were loads of people and most of them I didn't even know!

I left everything lying around so the next day I came in and the smell was just...well it was death filling the entire room.. It was dark.

Certain sculptures looked nice, but get a bit closer and things were not how they seemed...and they smelt. That is why I had to take it all down after just one and a bit days- gutted- literally. So I packed it away and put everything into suitcases and marinated them in salt. Whatever you do- never borrow or open a suitcase of mine because you never know what is or had been inside.....

Fox In A Box

I got this tip from my father. About 6 or seven years ago now a photography friend of mine asked me to do a shoot in which I would fondle the inside of a pig, cuddling it's guts dressed as a princess. Anyway, after the shoot my father did away with the remains by putting them in a briefcase and then throwing that into a skip. Ha. Poor bastard who found that..... It has become family tradition.

I was at Secret Garden doing a 'Voodoo' themed bar and installation for the Crossroads tent-the farmer heard I was there. He came to visit me, had a few words about animals and then left. Later that night he brought me warm rabbits.What the bloody hell was I supposed to do with them at a stinking hot festival?!

I hung them up in my cabin...Completely unaware the bands would be storing their stuff there the next day. I wasn't too popular after that. I also buried loads of rabbit heads and left a suitcase full of 'natural refuse'...I could not take it home so left it....poor bastards.....The animals, not the people who found it.

I never set out to shock. And it surprises me that people are shocked. That sounds weird but because I had been working on my own and in secret for so long, I came to see these things that I do as almost normal.

I am not a taxidermist. I am honest about that. I am an artist who uses found objects. I am interested in the art of collecting. I am a hoarder. I hate waste. I see beauty and use in everything- even the dead.

Any Holes A Goal!

A view I have come to discover about my practice is that it is somehow exploitation...But how can that be when the things I use have been found or rescued, everything 'useful' stripped from it and the rest only intended for the fumier? No one cares about them when they are on the side of the road or in giant bins hidden away down in some little known village in the countryside. But when they are put in front of you suddenly its exploitation....I love animals- I am fascinated by them. I am fascinated by life and by death. I experience the processes after death, letting things rot, burying them and digging them back up. Working back into the remains...

Your Nan's Fit

I hate being told what to do- I hate being told how to think and how things should be done. I would rather work it out for myself- make mistakes and learn from them. How did we learn anything in the first place? I am not afraid of discovery- It's very easy to do something when someone shows you how. It is easy to paint a picture when someone shows you which bit goes where, colour/perspective.... but the outcomes will be similar if not the same. There is nothing creative about that- there is no excitement- no discovery.

That's how I feel about my journey with taxidermy. It's not even real taxidermy by any strech of the imagination. My techniques are crude. I am interested in preserving death. I am making it us as I go along- trying different things and finding my own way rather than following the line of others. I have found some people have a problem with this.
My practice was born out of curiosity and morbid creativity. In my head I give these creatures a new life in sculptures.
Creating something that was never meant to be seen again.

I am interested in preserving death where as taxidermists are interested in preserving the illusion of life.

Love from

Charlie Gates
x

D.I.Y Taxidermy II: Dicing with Death

2010-10-18T06:04:00.000-07:00

D.I.Y Taxidermy II: Dicing with Death

Private view Nov 15th 7-10pm

7pm 7-9 Crucifix Lane

Under the arches of London Bridge

ARAB Photography

Gates has a fascination with old, discarded objects and of collecting... Even collecting the dead. Digging things out the ground, scraping road kill off the streets of London, practising D.I.Y taxidermy.
Gates opens creatures up to reveal their internal worlds, experimenting with preservation, manipulating the decay process using techniques like salt, gloss and shake’n’vac.
With what is left she creates macabre sculptures, involving other found and meticulously arranged objects, placed into bizarre surreal assemblages. Creating Freakish characters, a metamorphosis of their discarded lives.
Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/charlietuesdaygates#%21/event.php?eid=158806830819178
Facebook: http://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/Charlie-Tuesday-Gates-Artist-person/136474813038151
Review of previous exhibition: http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/lowri-257/im-thinking-of-something-stranger-2010/
Saatchi page: http://www.saatchionline.com/profiles/index/id/76291
Nothing was harmed for the making and or during the event. Everything was found dead and Charlie is a vegitarian.
The exhibition will be open for 3 days.
Love from
Charlie Gates
x

First shots of The Museum House Of Death.

2010-07-08T13:05:00.000-07:00

Acid Fox in a Box

The Living room

My sisters ex frozen Goldfish

Mothers day gift.
Mother never lets me take home anything dead. She pointed out this seagull floating in the water with an unfortunate hook in it's mouth, and as a special treat, she let me take it home- Bless

The photographer Nathan Whitham came to take pictures of my new Museum House Of Death.
Love from
Charlie Gates
x

Fashion shoot

2010-06-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

Photos by James Stroud

This Photogrpher asked to do a shoot in my old studio.

http://www.james-stroud.co.uk/

D.I.Y TAXIDERMY photos

2010-06-18T03:59:00.000-07:00

This was my first and last performance entitled 'D.I.Y Taxidermy'

When I first conceived the idea of live taxidermy...I felt a little bit weird. Was this right? Was this a good idea? The more I thought about it the easier it was to stomach. I had only ever half skinned a fox before so the thought of skinning animals in front of a live audience was daunting-espically as I had no real clue what I was doing. I decided not to think about it and let the magic happen spontaneously.

The first thing I did was get out the 'pickled rat' (for more information of the rat see a previous blog). This rat had been sitting in it's own bloody vodka juice for well over 6 months. Pulled out by it's tail, I then proceeded to ring it out so all the rat juice dripped away- I then poured shots of blood rat dirt water- no one drunk it.

The rest was more like a D.I.Y cooking show, done in a relaxed style where I would rabbit on about this and that, explaining where and how I came across such a curious selection; Deceased family goldfish, secretly saved by my sister in cigarette packets in the frezzer, compleatly flat rabbits scrapped up on roadkill missions, Birthday foxes brought to me in the middle of the night, crows and ravens battered by a hateful farmer and headless owls I had jumped out of cars for. All beautiful and all destined to die.

Nothing was intentionally harmed by me- everything was exactly how it was meant to be

My main materials were salt, vodka and shake'n'vac- Considering I know absolutely nothing about the subject these were my aspiring taxidermists essentials. Thinking about preservation from a base point linear level- Salt is actually amazing at keeping things longer, if not forever-?

Ethanol is what you get mixed with specimens in jars...so why not vodka?

Shake'n'vac just smells divine.

As soon as you walked into the space, there was the honking smell of death- death and grannies.

It was the Acid Fox positioned in the first room with the bar- ha ha.

Some people thought it was a brilliant addition to the show- others felt differently and I was asked by the gallery person to remove it a day later as there had been complaints. I didn't mind the smell but apparently it was seeping through the floor boards and he found it offensive.

I was genuinely hurt by his comments! I couldn't believe that he had asked me to remove one of my personaly best loved pieces! This Fox had been though everything. It couldn't be keep it in my house because the smell was too bad, so I kept it in a suitcase underneath various cars in our driveway- In retrospect, I should have let people know that I was doing this because on a few unfortunate occasions it was opened by unsuspecting housemates and even run over. After all this I realized that I couldn't risk loosing it so kept it in my spare room and when guests came I would move it into my bath....

Anyway, there was only 2 more days left of the show so casually asked if he would be coming into the gallery- after the response was 'No', I made the executive decision to keep the fox exactly where it was and assault it with yet more fruity fragrances. It gave the place more of a buzz, or maybe I was getting high off the fumes myself??? Sometimes I would drift off asleep in the same room as the fox(maybe I was intoxicated?!)

Days after the exhibition had finished I heard rumors of a life drawing class. Some woman was complaining about the smell and was later sick- very funny.

The response from the show was greatly varied in a great way. I wouldn't have called it family friendly so much so it had a warning on the door and down the road, so when I opened the door to a real life family- I had to restate that there was potentially offensive material inside, especially for children- they did not seem phased! So in I let a grandmother, father, mother and 2 children, one still in a push-chair..... Instantly the push-chair bound child started to cry. I overheard the Grandmother say 'Don't worry children, this is Art' Great I thought! I've made Art!

They didn't stay long and as they left I asked the young boy if he was scarred.

'No! No I was not scarred, I was not scarred one bit!' I told him he was very very brave.

An old lady stumbled in and as she stumbled out I asked what she had thought and if she enjoyed it.

'Well, I wouldn't say I enjoyed it- but if this is art then it's very interesting'

The people who came wanted to come and they came for the reasons that they had. Some people looked for hours, others just minutes but all had something to say.

This lady above stares wishfully at a real life sighned autograph of Katie Price . It reads: 'To my Special friend Charlie Gates,

Thank you for all of your support. Our friendship is truthful and helped enhance each others lives'

I am a massive fan of Katie Price aka Jordan. Huge I am. So huge a fan that when I discovered that you could get a signed autograph for a 5 £English from her website, I was all over it- my excitement heightened further when I discovered that for an extra 5IVer she'll write whatever you want!!! OMG!

This wasn't actually what I had requested her to write but she got the gist and I was happy with her own twist as it showed more of her personality. Lots of people asked me if things were real- Everything you think is real is really very real. There is hidden reality everywhere- like crack pipes and squashed birds, snakeskin heads over the top of light bulbs, curious collections of 'is it? isn't that?'...

'Look What The Stork Brung'

I was actually massively afraid of having this show. With the 'I'm Thinking of Something Stranger' exhibition, it was very easy to make things look good in a warehouse environment under candle light. However this was a proper gallery with white walls and everything. I was afraid because with white walls, there is no where to hide and things have to stand up for themselves.

Also I have learnt something from this- I have decided to learn. Perviously and all my life, I have always put up some huge barrier between me, art and knowledge. I find art and it's language alienating to people like me. I do find big words hard, I have been to many many different schools so my education is a mixed bag.

At university I found knowledge stifling because it makes you afraid of creating. People would make you think things and justify everything but it was those very things which I was trying to escape from through art.

In my world ignorance is bliss. I did not want or care to know. I was happy making and doing without any thought to the outside world and other perceptions, but that does not cut the mustard in the art world.

I became afraid- I hated university and when I left I told them all I was going to work on the shopping channel.

After graduating, something strange happened- I started to spontaneously create! I was lucky enough to get a secret warehouse underneath Bow Flyover big enough for a plane. This became my own world that hardly anyone one new about and less people came into. It was like walking into the backdoor of somones head and that person was very strange.

I would go there and be on my own and sing and be completely happy.

Word spread supprisingly. People did start to know and gradulay I did start to show them. However, with the people came the questions and people also wanted answers as to why I had made such strange assembledges. The massive wall came down again. I had no answers, I had nothing to say and I didn't want to say anything.

Anyway back to learning somthing- If I want to take this art stuff seriously then I need to take myself seriously which means I need to understand where it comes from. It means trying to understand something which I have purposely kept hidden from myself for as long as possible.

Perviously I couldn't and wouldn't want to explain why I create what I do. I do it instinctively, automatically and unconsciously. Things just appear and then I make visual sense of them by moving them around unconsciously. However, even unconscious thoughts have conscious beginnings.

My work is basically surrealism and if I can learn to channel these seeminly unconscious creative actions through my conscious mind with more purpose then perhaps I will get further. The only other thing I am afraid of is basically not being good enough....

My reasoning behind things is so personal and experiences pushed way way back- I don't want to be a Tracy Emin type...but I think I am one. It is all biographical- everything derives from experience and some- like my work, have been terrifying. Why would I want to talk about that?Why would I want to bring it all back up? But the thing is I have been and I have been doing it for years though my work- It's just something I haven't wanted to consciously look at because it means looking at these parts of yourself.

Anyway- a critic said that even though a lot of it looks good- there is nothing behind it- well fuck you. I am going to learn and I am going to have something to say and when I say it you will probably be sick.

(that was meant in a purely humous way)

Love from

Charlie Gates

D.I.Y TAXIDERMY

2010-05-26T03:50:00.000-07:00

rabt@rabphoto.com

D.I.Y.TAXIDERMY

Private View: Thursday June 3rd

The Nunnery 7-9pm

183 Bow Road, London E3 2SJ

Gallery opening times:10-6 Fri Sat Sun

Bringing together science, intuition and disturbing curiosity, Charlie Tuesday Gates will be preparing and treating animals you have grown to know and love in a D.I.Y style.

But there is far more to see than experimental taxidermy!

B.Y.O road kill and you coukld end up taking a piece of the magic home with you.

Love from

Charlie Gates

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120174398021053&ref=mf
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Charlie+Gates/104092.html

Love from

Charlie Gates

This is where the Terradactyl's live.

Much amazing thanks to Robin Turner for taking these photos.

rabt@rabtphoto.com

Shots from 'Something Stranger'

2010-04-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

TIT'S ON A HORSE

(There is some mild explanation for this somewhere in the blog)

Shots from the candlelit exhibition.... you can't actually really see anything, but it looked bloody beautiful. You would be walking around in the dark, and all of a sudden things would appear in front of you strangely.

This is not going to be here for long as it's sat on an Olympic goldmine looked after by the Russian Mafia, so come and have a look before it is gone forever!

My Review Woooo!

2010-01-22T15:42:00.001-08:00

Here is a review

http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/lowri-257/im-thinking-of-something-stranger-2010/

The show is a till open- anyone interested in coming down then give me a ring- Please don't just turn up otherwise you might get shot for trespassing

07508572978
Love from
Charlie Gates
x

KEEP AWAY FROM IDIOTS

2009-12-15T14:33:00.000-08:00

My laptop broke so I've been trawling through old e-mails trying to find pictures of work that still exists. Here is an existing image of

'KEEP AWAY FROM IDIOTS'

Unusually the sculpture still exists too.

This one sadly doesn't....

One Step Ahead

It was amazing in real life- Inside the head bustling with butterflies and popery.All found objects. Mostly. Everything fitted so bloody perfectly-It was perfect. One day I arrived at college to find it broken. No note, no apology, no answer. In a desperate bid for the truth, I threatened everyone I saw.... but no one had answers, no one had seen or heard anything.

I was supposed to learn a lesson from this:

Be more careful and do things properly.

Naughty Baby Long Fingers

Baby's walking round on their elongated fingers acept they didn't actually move....but if they did...

Tits on a Horse

2009-12-13T10:19:00.000-08:00

Tits on a Horse

Sorry, I just thought that was funny because it's an antler, and antlers are from deers not horses.

This photo was taken by Luke Burke, thanks Luke.

I've decided to try and make an exhibition of all this work sometime in January. It seems silly not to. I can try and make it fun and not uncomfortable or embarrassing. Candle light seems like the best idea.

Like this but better. I'll even move stuff around and try my hand at curation.

I went to the village pub and guess what they had hanging round the back for me?Only about 20 pheasants- 20 whole pheasants with wings and heads and everything else pretty much apart from the meat! But I'm a vegetarian anyway so that doesn't matter. I watched a taxidermy video on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8CUpcO5WLA

Today I pickled my first rat

2009-11-03T05:43:00.000-08:00

We had what some would call an infestation.

One dark and cold night I awoke to feel the pitter-patter of tiny feet across my pillow. That’s right- my own pillow. I made a move and I felt the bastard run down my leg...................... Jesus, that was it. I had had enough sleepiness nights worrying about when I would get herpes from land sharks.

But no more.

I brought about a ton or Rodin and set piles of it about the place then went to sleep. I awoke early and tentatively peered into the bowls, they were empty!

So I sat back and gloated at their misfortune, but my gloat was short lived. The bubble burst upon hearing that rats have an illness homing device and go to their nests to die- Shit. That means in a month or a week or whenever we're going to have to deal with the smell of rotting diseased bastards ruining are nasal passages with the memory of their vile existence. Erugh.

3 days later I awoke to another beautiful day in paradise. I opened my door and there on the floor was a present- A small but perfectly formed rat. I was so happy! I did a double take as another but far superior rat was dead too! It was a good day.

After leaving them in the rain for about 2 days I decided I was ready for my close up, but alas one had 'mysteriously' disappeared.... luckily I was left with the large one.

I brought a jar and a bottle of Tesco’s finest vodka for around 6 English pounds. I figured that kind of vodka was suitable and may preserve them for a good while yet. There it is now, stuffed uncomfortably in a tiny jar winking at me.

I killed another rat by setting an accidental trap and then dropped a brick on its head. I haven’t had the guts to fish it out from the bottom of the bin yet but I know soon, curiosity will get the better of me. The same thing happened with baby chick. ...

I had adopted a baby chick with special needs from a lady in my village. It was special as it walked backwards, the poor thing. And when it pecked, its peck didn't even reach the ground. I left it in the capable hands of a friend but when I returned it had died. I wont say I blame my friend.

My housemate's didn't want me to do anything with it, so we had a modest funeral- just close friends and family. Baby Chick rested a while in the garden. Massive curiosity got the better of me. I kept thinking about it's perfectly formed wings and the bones it would have left behind- I wanted to see it. I knew deep down it was wrong but I just couldn't help myself- so one dark night I got a spoon and dug it up............

Very very disappointing.
It had melted away into the world. Baby Chick had left nothing of himself to me apart from a memory

Look What The Stork Brung!

2009-10-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

Today I had a brain spasm. I've been busy. Recently I've been really busy. Mostly being busy means moving things round my studio but today I was moving them more productively than usual.

'Look What the Stork Brung’ is stuff I have been working on separately, little individual pieces that were independent to each other that I joined up.

That day my mind was working and things fitted into place so perfectly. I got such a massive rush! It was so weird. 5 bloody years of keeping and collecting and in 5 minutes I had pieced all the links together to make it work like a well-oiled machine.

'Every Time I Look Into Your Eyes I See The Future'

I had a 'studio visit' the day I made this. I was thinking 'Shit, I havnt made anything in ages...what the hell am I going to do...' So it became almost automatic what I was doing. Bits and bobs which had been hanging round my life for ages just started fitting and clogs started moving. Right place right time kind of thing.

I keep hold of things knowing somewhere deep inside that they will come in useful some day. Things like dried up bits of fish.

Popular Culture 2008

Love this. It developed automatically too. It's got loads of my favorite stuff in it. Fish, pearls,gold, crabs, shinny stuff, parts of people, antlers, birds, death and christmas cheer.

Eyeful Tower

This was another happy accident. I was just looking for an interesting way to display my jewelry. Someone only recently pointed it out to me and I felt proud.

I had made the doll previously for another degree attempt and kept it on. It was fun to watch peoples faces as I sat there burning the crotch out of the doll and then pushed it's own eyes into it's fanny. My justification was that it was loosely based on the book 'The Storey Of The Eye' but I hadn't actually read it until I finished my degree- It was a bloody good book.

This cheeky chappie doesn't have a name yet. I got some free chicken heads and feet from the butcher(lucky me) and did a bit of DIY taxidermy. First I peeled and cut the skin off the head and I blasted the skull in the oven until all therest of the flesh had burnt away and was left with a perfect chicken skull. The eyes were the trickiest bit but the nasty nasty part was taking out the vocal cord- yuck. One of the heads I didn't skin and just put it in the oven for a bit to dry, after which I covered it in clear nail varnish and it still survives today!

The feet were easy in comparison. Nail varnish is a taxidermists secret weapon.