‘I love the excitement of standing in my scrap pile looking for that perfect part which will become a dog’s jaw, a kestrel’s tail, or the toe of a baby orangutan.

I am often asked, “Do you start by finding a piece of scrap to fit what you are making, or does the scrap inspire the idea?” It is a good question, and both are true. To lead or be led?

Each sculpture starts with an idea, a thought, a feeling at the time and after detailed research, sometimes a drawing. Much time is spent gazing at the scrap pile and then I find the parts, pieces of discarded metal filed according to shape in a rusting library of scrap. Then the drama of the process begins. The workshop becomes full of the sound of cutting, grinding and welding. Sparks, molten metal in flux as it all transforms to become some other form, another life.

I am as interested in the spaces I leave as the parts I put in. To me this is positive space, a place for the imagination to fill in the muscle and mass and feel the essence of the creature.

I am fascinated by our connection and disconnection to the natural world. We are so closely related to other mammals and if we let ourselves feel that then so many of life’s questions are more easily answered.

Flux is a collection of sculpture created over the last two years. The shared love of Haiku, the joy and awe of the natural world, the horror of some of our actions, and the playful nature of being human.’’

– Helen Denerley