Mike Helsby

Mike Helsby
I was privileged to be given the opportunity to be an honorary curator of Warrington Museum’s Cabinet of Curiosities. When I visited the Museum I was inspired by the taxidermy tiger head, the dodo and the hare.

I decided to create four ceramic versions of the taxidermy heads using the connection between the dodo and the hare and their link to Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll and Tim Burton’s versions). My animal sculptures create a background for a set of video projections which portray the surreal world of Wonderland. Using anthropomorphism I’m linking characters from Alice in Wonderland to various animals that I have sculpted in clay. I have aimed to capture the witty and eccentric characteristics from each character using quotes from scenes in the film. My video projections combine characteristics from the following: Alice – Ape Mad Hatter – Wolf Cheshire cat – Tiger Queen of Hearts – Walrus