Sally Matthews

Description

When invited to make a work for Sculpture at Goodwood, Sally Matthews wanted to do something that was subtle and low key but which also had the qualities of energy and power. Animals being the principal motif for her sculptures, she chose the wolf. It was, she felt, a small animal but with a big presence. In deciding to place her sculptures quite simply amongst the trees, using their verticality as a formal device to provide interval in the placement, she has given rhythm to the subject of wolves trotting through the woodland.

It is the animals themselves that interest Matthews rather than their mythologies, although many of these surround the wolf as it is a creature that is generally not well understood. Her research took her to an organisation called Wolf Watch at Bishop's Castle in Shropshire, which rescues wolves from places that can no longer cope with them. There were four wolves, and the owner took Matthews into the pen where she could sit quietly and observe them, take photographs and make drawings. She was advised not to stay there on her own, as the wolves being curious and unsure of her presence might have reacted against her.

Having familiarised herself with the creatures, Matthews's resulting sculptures have a startlingly realistic appearance - more so than even she had expected. They have extremely soft under-fur, which she conveys with great truth in the loopy, scumbled surface of the sculpture. The plaster models, she says, however, were sharper than the bronze. Her first wolves in a public setting were made in Grizedale Forest between 1989 and 1993 in materials that gradually deteriorated, so that her original concept was slowly compromised. The bronze wolves will give her work an enduring quality and remain true to her vision.