TAKE a look at the sculpture to the right.

At first glance an odd-looking orb, crown and sceptre, this prize-wining creation carries a disgusting secret.

Like something from a Grimm Brothers fairy tale, this morbid variant of the Crown Jewels is crafted from human hair and babies’ teeth.

Currently on show at the Mercer Gallery, Harrogate artist James Bowland’s “Memento Mori” also features animal skin and bone.

Alongside Heather Dormer’s pastel study, “Reflections on the Nidd”, the gruesome work was picked as the joint favourite of visitors to the gallery’s Harrogate Open Exhibition, which saw more than 600 submissions from across the district whittled down to 140 display pieces.

The idea behind it, says Bilton lad Bowland - who graduated from Lancaster University this summer with a First in Fine Arts - came from the way humans recoil from disowned body parts.

“We are repulsed by our bodies when they aren’t part of our bodies,” he said. “Like finding a hair in your soup.”

Affixed to a person, these bits - glossy hair, white teeth, nice skin - are all signs of beauty. But you wouldn’t want to find them lying on your kitchen floor.

He wants us to feel the conflict, so he built a sculpture from these corporeal cast-offs. Viewers are drawn in by the lush purple velvet, then repulsed by the materials.

“I ended up using the Crown Jewels to say that we should worship these things,” he said.

“We are obsessed with wealth, when actually the more important things are our health and our bodies.”

And just where did he find his materials?

“A lot of it was sourced through friends and family - my mum had kept most of my baby teeth,” he said. Friends’ parents proved a similar resource.

“The bones - pig bones - were from a butchers.” These were then boiled, bleached and carved with a Dremmel multi-tool, not unlike a dentist’s drill.

“The hair,” he added, “was from a salon in Lancaster.”

No humans, at least, were harmed in the making of this sculpture.

It will be on show alongside all 140 exhibits from the Open Exhibition - including the other prize winners - until 5pm on Sunday when the show draws to a close.

The Mercer Art Gallery is open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 10am to 5pm, and Sundays from 2pm to 5pm.

Admission to the exhibtion is free.