Tessa Campbell Fraser

Description

The hippo sculptures are a departure from Tessa's allegorical pieces, but she was inspired to create them after seeing these great beasts wallowing in the calm water. They appear like floating logs, when really they are massive, weighty, aggressive animals.

Tessa loved the fact that she could sculpt the hippos in a manner that did not need the whole bodies, yet retains the full impact of them being complete life size animals. The importance to her, was that the base of the sculpture is formed by the water creating a fluid, ever moving accompaniment, absorbing the hippos fully into their natural habitat and landscape.

Tessa feels that the placing of the hippos, wallowing in a cool, secret water hole, captures a sense of observing the animals quietly and undetected, as if in the bush.