Rachel Ducker

With an incredibly visual, active mind Rachel has an insatiable desire to create and make. Well practiced in life drawing and with an appreciation of the human form and the emotional dynamics of human nature, combined with being originally trained as a jeweler, lead her to experiment with wire as a medium for sculpting the human form, capturing something ephemeral, either emotive or active.

Her pieces are untitled due to her belief that everyone sees something different in the sculptures and her lack of suggestion leads them to live that moment she portrays in their own particular way, therefore expanding the piece of work further with every viewer.

The translucency and form of her work allows rather dramatic shadows to be cast and with the right lighting, can show the three dimensional form on a two dimensional level creating an effect resembling a pencil sketch on the wall.

Rachel uses no model and she doesn’t form the shape around anything. The posture is first designed and then the pieces are carefully molded by hand and then gradually added to, wrapping wire, layer by layer. Her satisfaction with the posture can be instantaneous or take days and every angle important right to the tip of the finger and to a millimeter of adjustment until just right. She discovered that the slightest movement in the angle of the hand or fingers, or the tilting of the head changes everything the figure is portraying.

Her sculptures being featureless leaves the posture to say all, expressing the feeling. The hair creating the scene, making all more turbulent, dramatic, adding latent movement and tenacity. She is very focused on people watching and body language and how people express themselves physically and all goes along side her keen interest in psychology.

Her inspiration may come from the human form, but she is also greatly inspired by different materials, found objects and new techniques and is keen to combine mediums, finding it often leading to new ideas, which Rachel is never short of!

The wire work keeps her more than busy, supplying over twenty galleries in the UK alone, various exhibitions and numerous private commissions globally. But Rachel tries to keep her active mind diverse in it’s creativity. She still makes her silver cast jewelry to commission and enjoys experimenting with painting, life drawing mono-prints, photography and is keen to try animation with the wire figures, as well as constantly moving on with the sculpture.