Sophie Ryder (born 1963) is a British sculptor, painter, printmaker and collagist[1] known for her large wire structures. Ryder typically uses bronze, wet plaster embedded with found materials, sheet metal, marble, and stained glass.
Biography
Sophie Ryder was born in London, England, in 1963. She studied combined arts at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1981 to 1984, focusing initially on painting. She changed her focus when the Royal Academy's director, Sir Hugh Casson, encouraged her skills development in sculpture.[2]
Works
Sophie Ryder: Minotaur and Hare on Bench (1995) Canary Wharf, London[3]
Ryder's sculptures sometimes represent mystical creatures, animals and hybrid beings created in assemblages of materials such as sawdust, wet plaster, obsolete machinery, toys, weld joins, wire 'pancakes', torn scraps of paper and charcoal sticks. Her iconography includes the character of the Lady Hare, which she sees as a counterpart to Ancient Greek mythology's Minotaur. Her most known piece is the Lady Hare, a hare with a female human body. The works have been commended for questioning human relationships to the natural and folkloric worlds while contemplating dualities of perception.[4][5][6]
In 1994, a depiction of five minotaurs was excluded from an exhibition at Winchester Cathedral because the sculpture included genitalia as part of the anatomy.[7]
Ryder has stated, "I don't sit and contemplate what it is I am trying to achieve. My head is full of ideas all the time. It is part of my life. I don't plan anything, it just comes." Similarly, when asked about the prominence of hares in her work, the artist stated, "it's the same as asking me why I make sculptures, and the answer is because I feel driven to. So it's difficult to always pin down reasons. My introduction to hares was when my lurcher dog would proudly bring hares home and drop them at my feet."[8]
^Benington, Jonathan (2001). Sophie Ryder. Sophie Ryder. Aldershot, Hampshire: Lund Humphries in association with Berkeley Square Gallery. ISBN0-85331-826-3. OCLC47270995.
