At the moment I’m also working on a collection of animal sculptures that are based on the last four big mammals to become extinct from Britain which are; the lynx, the wolf, the beaver and the wild boar. The history of the animals living alongside Britons is very interesting, from the giant mastiff dogs bred by the Celts (and envied by the Romans) to protect their stock from lynx’s and wolves to the last reliable and heartbreaking account of the last known set of beavers which tells of their inconspicuous nature at a time when their skins were much sought after. And the employment of wolf hunters to clear the land of the giant tundra wolves (a sub-species of the European wolves whose remains show that they grew to the size of Arctic wolves much bigger than their surviving European ancestors) that came to Britain about 4000 years ago on the last land bridge before the island formation.
Their relevance to the land upon we sit makes for an interesting background to the project and I will display the extensive research that I’ve done into their historic background in a timeline that will be put alongside the sculptures. By highlighting the local extermination of British fauna I’m trying to inspire the appreciation and preservation of our remaining fauna and also highlight a contemporary debate that is underway about the reintroduction of lost species.
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