“When I was younger I traipsed around museums like the V&A, and the Rodin Museum in Paris. I saw a lot of classical statues but I was really more interested in the toys in the tourist shops. As I got older I wanted to try and make those interests mould into one thing. The use of rubber in my work was a way to try and find a material that had the same fetishistic appeal as metal but wasn’t. I’ve always been interested in natural history programmes and was brought up, like many kids, on David Attenborough. We have a fascination with animals; they act as a mirror to ourselves. In some ways we’re able to understand the way we act in terms of animals. In Saddleback I wanted there to be an ambiguity between the animals caring for one another but also trying to manipulate each other; it captures an indecisive moment between where caring becomes possessive.”