Sophie Ryder was born in London, England, in 1963. During her childhood, her French mother travelled to Provence in the south of France where the family spent the entire summer. She studied Combined Arts at the Royal Academy of Arts where, while obtaining her diploma in painting, she was encouraged by fellow artist to develop her sculpture. Inspired by Picasso, Goya and Henry Moore, she famously developed the Lady Hare as a counterpart to Ancient Greek mythology's Minotaur. Individual animals and groups of them, fashioned in wire and in bronze, some realistic and some fantastical, have become her objects. Human attributes may be found in some of her creatures. They are not just animals, but characters beyond animal form. More important than outward appearances are the gestures, the points of contact, the attitudes of the characters which Ryder impels us to regard first and foremost as indicators of feeling.
"I sculpt characters and beings - the dogs, the hares, the minotaurs - are all characters beyond animal form... I am not interested in making a replica..." Many of her sculptures are of extremely large scale. They are designed with public spaces in mind and have to compete either with large buildings in an urban context, or else the grandeur of nature in a landscape setting. And most importantly, she is most fulfilled when she is able to immerse herself, body and soul, in the process of making, when the work is large enough for her to move around it and interact with it from every conceivable angle, watching it grow in front of her eyes. These art objects are direct products of her working methods, and as such they have an inherent fascination - people are naturally intrigued by unusual processes. It is still necessary, however, to see beyond them and recognise that the materials are a means to an end: the communication of ideas. They lie at the centre of all the artist's creations, and they are fed by a spring that never runs dry. Indeed, the ideas emerge so quickly that she never has enough time to implement all of them. The ability to retrieve and develop an idea will depend not only on how other projects are progressing, but also on the resolution of any technical hurdles she may have set herself, especially in relation to her larger sculptures.
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