Wire-7 babboon in prog-2015-4-27
Image: Mathew Hollow Photography

Working only with layers of galvanised wire atop a steel skeleton, UK artist Kendra Haste creates life-like reproductions of animals from the ground up.

"I have always drawn and made things but working with wire really came about when I was at art college," she says. "By building it up in layers it's possible to depict the musculature of my animal subjects, adding to their sense of life and animation."

Haste spends as much time as possible observing and sketching the animals she sculpts, paying close attention to form, movement and behaviour. "I try to create a sense of the living, breathing subject," she explains.

Her installation, "The Royal Beasts", was inspired by the Royal Menagerie, a collection of exotic animals kept at the Tower of London for over 600 years. The Menagerie was founded in the early 1200s during the reign of King John, and the animals – everything from elephants and lions to kangaroos and ostriches – were kept as symbols of power, and for the entertainment and curiosity of the court. 

"The Tower has beautiful old engravings and etchings of some of the animals kept there. The wire [gives off this] ephemeral quality, which is hard-hitting when depicting these ghost-like creatures from the Tower's past," Haste says.

And it doesn't stop there: Since the Tower project, Haste has been busy working on larger wildlife-inspired commissions, like a life-sized giraffe, rhino and Stellar's sea lion. 

Wire-1 male lion-2015-4-27
Image: Mathew Hollow Photography
Wire-4 polar bear-2015-4-27
Image: Mathew Hollow Photography
Wire-5 baboon-2015-4-27
Image: PDCA
Wire-6 ellie studio-2015-4-27
Image: PDCA
Wire-15 baboons outside-2015-4-27
Image: PDCA
Wire-giraffe-2015-4-24
Image: Matthew Hollow Photography
Wire-dolphin-2015-4-24
Image: Matthew Hollow Photography
Wire-rhino-2015-4-24
Image: Matthew Hollow Photography
Wire-sea lion-2015-4-24
Image: Matthew Hollow Photography

Check out the full scope of Haste's latest work here.

Top header image: Mathew Hollow Photography