Hannah Kidd and Sue Bamford.
Edgy humour weaves though Hannah Kidd’s larger than life metal sculptures that often focus on the relationship people have with their surrounding environment.
Hannah graduated from the Otago Polytechnic School of Art in 2001 and soon became interested in metalwork. At that stage she didn’t have the welding skills to make solid, freestanding objects so she found herself a job at Methven Engineering Services in Canterbury, where Don Johnson took her under his wing.
“He was amazing. He knew what I wanted and why I was there and he taught me so much about the practicality of making things stand up…We worked on projects from making ploughs, to cabs on loaders, to fixing farm implements”.
Hannah has developed a unique technique; filling the gaps between her detailed three dimensional wire frames with flattened, corrugated iron cladding. She usually welds the frames, while her assistant Sue Bamford prepares and welds on the cladding in a noisy studio in the middle of Methven.
Over the past several years Hannah’s art has been exhibited in New Zealand and around the world. Last month, her Snakes and Ladders’ sculpture was displayed during the Sculptures by the Sea show in Sydney, where 109 sculptures by artists from 16 countries were enjoyed by more than 500,000 people along the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walkway.
