It seems strange, but cold, thin wires are one of the best materials when an artist wants to represent the human form. These elegant and fluid wire sculptures by Richard Stainthorp, an artist based in Richmond in the U.K., seem like dancers or woodland spirits captured in mid-stride.
Wires are perfect for imitating the muscles and curves that we associate with the human body. As excellent as Stainthorp is with this sculptural medium, he isn't the only artist who's discovered its many uses – we have an entire list of wire sculpture experts.
To see more of Stainthorp's artwork, be sure to check out his website! Read on for his answers to Bored Panda's questions about his work.
"Wire is an extremely difficult medium to work with," Richard Stainthorp told Bored Panda. "It is not automatically what one would consider as a 'material' for creating solid, three dimensional sculptures. It was the fact that it was so difficult that made it a challenge for me"
"I knew that if I could get a sculpture looking right from all angles then I would have mastered the material, however 16 years later I am yet to achieve that goal, although I've been close at times. It is this challenge that is my ongoing motivation"
"My work is all about the beauty of the human form. I chose to use more detailed female forms for achieving the 'correct from all angles' goal, as replicating a smooth curve and getting it right with a dense mass of wire, from all angles, is almost impossible, but a great challenge"
"Most of my male forms or 'unisex' forms are action pieces, where the sex, or fine detail is of secondary importance to the sense of movement, or the emotion I want to portray in a particular piece"
"Most of my work is the result of experimenting with different poses, and I have a long progression of work that has built up to the exact poses and forms I currently use. For example, female forms with highly arched backs - because of the nature of wire as a sculptural medium, it became clear over time that slightly exaggerated poses resulted in more life-like pieces"
"It is something to do with the contrast between a completely foreign material and the pose itself that seems to combine to make something realistic, and because wire is such a strange material compared to, for example, clay or stone, the pose needs to be exaggerated more than corresponding sculptures in these materials, to attain that balance that makes something seem 'real'"
Thank you, Richard Stainthorp, for talking to Bored Panda about your work!