Sculptor Profile

 

Hannah Kidd

Hannah Kidd is an established sculptor with a popular following for her inventive and irreverent work. Her sculptures are usually constructed from sections of steel and corrugated iron, welded together to create structures of varying scale from butterflies to bulls. The materials are readily available, very workable and require minimal equipment; Kidd’s main tools are bolt cutters, tin snips and a mig welder which she learned to use through a period of employment at a Methven engineering firm. Her subjects and thematic material are drawn from her observations of life and her immediate environment. Kidd has developed a signature style incorporating humour into her sculpture as a vehicle for discussion on the human condition. Animals are often cast as substitutes for their human counterparts in tableaux of familiar social situations and behaviours. Kidd has experimented with working in many different mediums, from steel to taxidermy. She believes her sculptures have benefited from this as each process informs another. Her most recent collection The Gentleman’s Club, featured mounted hunting trophies constructed in metal from the principles of taxidermy: I have been building these frameworks - feeling the spirit of the animal. They sit there, open in their skeletal form. You know them like a taxidermist knows the inside of an animal. When you clad them you bring them back to life.