Fascination with Alexander Calder's ‘Circus', constructed from found objects, along with The Cabaret Mechanical Theatre's automata, inspired me to construct mechanical sculptures and automata at college. Found objects from the family farm turned into life-size scratching pigs and walking geese, assembled using a variety of techniques, similar to many repairs and constructions carried out on the farm – welding, tying, riveting, soldering.
The relationship between human and animal is a recurrent theme, as the manipulation by hand cranks to animate the creatures suggests. Birds, insects and mammals created the atmosphere of the farm environment and surrounding wildlife. Sewing machines and clocks helped provide mechanisms and also commented on domesticity and a sense of time during the farm calendar. Influenced by visits to the coast, the subject matter became broader, introducing fish and crustaceans.
The Creative Ambition Award in 2002 enabled me to take some time to explore the human/animal relationship at different tangents and create some new work. I looked at the idea of protection and using images of armour in my work. I also thought about the way animals are portrayed on wildlife programmes, animated films and children's books and how that anthropomorphic idea changes our ideas of specific animals.
