Images shows locally dug HS2 clay and plasticine original before casting.
Bronze, Signed Hamish Mackie
Numbered Edition of 12
Dated 2025
50cm high x 67cm long x 28cm wide / 19.5″ x 26.5″ x 11″
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£TBCThis sculpture is rooted in decades of unforgettable encounters I’ve been lucky enough to have with elephants in Africa. More than 30 years ago in Lewa, while sculpting en plein air from the back of a Land Cruiser, a wild elephant approached to investigate. Being so close to elephants, on their terms, is something that stays in the body forever. You feel their presence not just in the air, but in your chest – the deep, prehistoric rumbles of their communication, vibrations that elephants can sense from over 14 kilometres away.
Since those early experiences, elephants have remained one of my favourite subjects. There is something about them that resonates deeply. They are such intelligent animals.
This particular piece was inspired by a close encounter with a magnificent bull elephant I met on foot near Il Ngwesi Lodge in Kenya. I was able to carry out further research this year during an inspiring Nomad Safari, while staying at Entanamu Lodge on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania’s Serengeti. This sculpture carries with it those memories, a sense of the vastness of Africa. I’d love to sculpt a life-size elephant one day, and this composition would make a great pose for it.
The original was sculpted in locally-dug clay—an instinctive choice for portraying an animal so often cloaked in mud. This sculpture depicts an elephant backing off with its head held high, fully alert. One ear is held back to maintain a clear line of sight, the other is angled to listen. Its tail is raised and its body is alive with tension.
