Sophie Ryder

Description

Unlike Barry Flanagan's hares, lean creatures which play and cavort in many strange orders and contexts, Sophie Ryder's seem to belong entirely to the animal world. These over life-size male and female hares box in a contest which would likely result in her submission. A version of one of nature's greatest wonders which is rarely observed, this sculpture captures in bronze all the energy and lust that are expressed in such activity.

The bronze would have been made first as a wire aperture, covered with plaster, the surface patterning being achieved through pressing bolts, screws, washers, springs and pieces of textured metal into the surface before casting. There is a humour in the way Ryder selects such adornments, and the result is both playful and entirely apt.