Kendra Haste

For the first time, the British artist Kendra Haste is featured in an exhibition in Germany. In Great Britain, the USA and Asia, her animal sculptures have already become very popular. In London, her works are on permanent public display in locations such as the Tower and Waterloo Station. Now, eleven of her animal sculptures are making their way onto the European mainland.

Kendra Haste was born in London in 1971. During her studies at the Royal College of Arts, she developed an interest in hexagonal mesh—also known as chicken wire—which was traditionally used as a supporting framework beneath clay and other materials. Its linear quality reminded her of drawing. By layering many individual wire layers, she achieves an incomparable expressiveness with this seemingly simple and everyday material. She herself describes her sculptures as an exploration of three-dimensional drawing in space.

“What most interests me in studying animals is getting to know the essence and character of each individual. I try, in a manner of speaking, to capture the living, breathing subject in a static 3-D form and to convey its emotional essence without descending into sentimentality or anthropomorphism.”
(Kendra Haste)

Having grown up in the English capital, the artist had little contact with nature or wildlife for a long time. This urban alienation from the natural world—and the desire to overcome it—has sparked an enduring fascination with the animal kingdom, particularly with large mammals. Reflections on the relationship between humans and animals resonate throughout her work.

The artist, who was awarded the BBC Wildlife Art Award, has engaged with our native wildlife in her artistic intervention at the Eisenkunstguss Museum in Büdelsdorf (Büdelsdorf Cast Iron Museum), creating eleven works that visitors encounter during their tour of the exhibition. In doing so—and especially in view of the 19th‑century animal sculptures displayed in the permanent exhibition alongside the contemporary pieces—the question arises whether our perception of animals has changed over time and how we can share our living space.