"Rejection was a source of motivation for me. By freeing the sculpture from prejudice, you free it from the shackles of meaning so it can embody authentic experience."
Barry Flanagan is a Welsh visual artist known for his many animals, including hares, elephants, and horses, in incongruous anthropomorphic poses that challenge traditional sculpture. Connected with "pataphysical" philosophy - defined by Alfred Jarry as "the science of imaginary solutions" - and imbued with absurd poetry, Flanagan's protean production gradually asserted itself as research on the expressiveness of form and movement. The artist’s animal bodies also facilitate a parody of heroic statuary as inherited from classical art, thus introducing a subversive dimension into British sculpture.