There’s a serious point to this; it’s not all about a love for animals and the pleasure I take in sculpting their forms, although it is about that too. The animals here are ones I’ve encountered in real life, in dreams, in myth, and in imagination. Some have been companions with whom I’ve had intimate, long-lasting relationships; others I encountered only briefly. I can’t help but reflect on the importance of both of these, and the latter in particular as such relationships grow ever rarer.

Photographs by Hayden Phipps, courtesy of WhatiftheWorld.

Small Lion with Fabulous Hair, 2021, bronze

I can dream, can’t I?

Hermes (I think), 2021, bronze

Hermes was the a name given to a Caracal living on the urban edge in Cape Town. I was lucky enough to encounter him early one evening. He was headed off to enjoy a dassie for dinner.

Nanook, 2016, bronze

Nanook was one of two cats my wife and I shared our home with for close to 18 years.

Something buck, 2021, bronze

Despite my abiding interest in animals, I am pretty poor at identifying antelope. I attribute this in part to never having visited a game reserve as a a child, something that was a common experience among my peers.

Large Grey Mongoose, 2021, bronze

As a student in Pietermaritzburg, I lived close to a small green belt. There I encountered several animals – a likkewaan for example – and a few times I crossed paths with a water mongoose, which was a surprisingly large mammal to encounter on your street late at night!

Bruce, 2020, bronze

Shortly before my father died I had a very moving dream in which my wife and I were returning to a forest a dog which we had rehabilitated. As we moved deeper into the bush, the forest became wilder and the dog transformed slowly into a wolf. Eventually we parted company.

Bear, 2016, bronze

On a trip to Japan, we encountered a small carved wooden bear used as a prop in a tiny jewellery store in Shimokitazawa. We never saw the store again and I learned nothing of this figurine. On our return home I learned that the bear was likely carved by Ainu people in the north of the country, a folk art which originates in the early 20th century and which was based on a Swiss tradition. Bears are common in Hokkaido and are an important part of Ainu folklore. Sometime later I made my own, but mine seems closer to an American grizzly bear, and the proportions reflect the additive process of modelling I used, rather than the precision and economy of the carved nature of the piece which originally inspired it.

Lion, 2015, bronze, skateboard wheel, hardware

This piece comes from an earlier body of work, where it seemed to play the part of a deity among a constellation of stars made similarly from carved skateboard wheels. I first used carved skateboard wheels in an earlier body of work entitled ‘Season’.

Undermonkey, 2015, bronze

Undermonkey too came from my earlier show ‘Elemental’. The image was partly inspired by seeing one of our cats perched on her reflection on our shiny kitchen floor. Humans, I fancy, consider ourselves civilised and controlled but we are mocked at every turn by our animal nature, scratching, farting and filling up at the buffet table. We are shadowed, so to speak, by our primate selves.