by Sophie Ryder steel rod and steel wire, located 1988, removed 1995
“When I first visited the forest, I knew straight away that I wanted to make a group sculpture. Since I make animals, one solitary form would have been lost in the trees unless it had been very large. The animals that felt right to me were deer. The next hurdle was the site. I had a lot of problems with siting my work outside, as it is very fragile and tempting for children to sit on. The idea that sprung to mind was to situate them in water. There is a lake called Three Islands Lake, and I wanted to make a herd of deer rushing from one island to the next through the water. The site turned out to be a dragonfly sanctuary so that was out. I was set on the idea of water by this stage and eventually we found another pond.
I had one month in which to work. I wanted to make twenty deer, but had time only to make thirteen. The space they occupy is quite large and I still think there could have been more of them, to create more of an atmosphere of this herd of frightened or disturbed animals rushing across the water. I thought I was going to have problems putting them in place and fixing them in the water. I had plans to build a bridge underwater with holes in, and then to place the steel rod frames of the deer’s legs into the holes, but this proved unnecessary. What I did was to make the legs much longer than normal and sink them into the deep mud on the bottom of the pond. Since the water is so still, I am hoping the deer will stay in position for a year or two. The wire I have used is very rusty, so they will rust away before they sink. I love the different shapes in colour and texture of rusting wire.
Julian Davies had a project going nearby with schoolchildren, and when I had finished installing they helped me collect mosses to plant on and around the island, which by now was very muddy. All the trees and shrubs were very lush and green at the time, September/October, and the deer were hidden from many angles.
I went back a few months later to check on them, and was amazed to see most of them exactly as I left them. One had been pushed in, but we managed to rescue it, and one had been sat on. Since it was winter it looked really sparse, and as you could see them from way back, there was no feeling of discovery. They jump straight out at you and look very vulnerable. I called the piece, River Crossing which leaves the onlooker to decide for themselves why they are crossing.”
Sophie Ryder, summer 1988