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About Rupert
Born in 1969 in England, Rupert has
worked as a sculptor for nine years since he graduated from
the Chelsea School of Art in 1991 with a BA Hons degree. When
he left college, he returned to Yorkshire and was confronted
with inspiration, a commission and a bright idea all at once.
The inspiration came from sculptress
Sophie Ryder's lurcher made from coiled wire, the commission
for a 120 foot ivy buttress for Susan Cunliffe-Lister and
the bright idea was that the perfect material - rabbit netting
- was being dumped all around ripe for recycling.
His years of anatomical observation
have done him proud and result in an ability to grasp faultlessly
and speedily the essential character and proportion of an
animal. He used to make them out of solid wire, but they became
impossibly unwieldy, and now he builds up layers of wire musculature
on a welded steel skeleton.
| "I
don't wrap the armature with wire, I fold it and build
it up in little sections. If they were simply wrapped,
they wouldn't have any muscles and they wouldn't show
any feeling. It's quite fiddly. The final skin is wrapped
and the ends tucked in, so that the finished result is
smooth and you can stroke it." |
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