It still felt as though the city was abandoned; a ghost town, never seen before in my lifetime. Mmm… The sound of silence.

I could count the total number of people passed, social-distancing, of course, on both hands.

From Regent’s Park, we headed to Great Portland Street, Oxford Circus, Marble Arch, Hyde Park, Mayfair, Maddox Gallery and Berkeley Square where I marvelled at “Crawling” by Sophie Ryder.

‘To me it encompasses so many emotions. The lady is strong and confident and she is moving along which makes one wonder “where is she going?” 

‘She is a bronze that I scaled up from the maquette by eye from very small, straight to very large, which is a very difficult process as normally its done in several more stages than that.

‘I worked on it for a long time, 16 hours a day back in 1999. The first attempt collapsed on top of me in one big crash! I was a bit bruised and battered but learnt then that my structures needed to be better thought out. I had wasted a couple of months of work but gained years of experience.  

‘Sculpture should adapt to its surroundings and be good from every angle. Crawling does all of that in my opinion and so she is a piece I am incredibly proud of.

‘People always ask me ‘what is your favourite piece?’ I reply ‘the maquette of Crawling’ as she led me here.’
                     –– Sophie Ryder