Meet Jordan Sprigg, a metalwork artist who transforms recycled materials found from retired machinery, scrap heaps, and clearance sales into breath-taking unique sculptures.
Based in the country of Western Australia, Jordan is a self-taught artist who took a break from his Psychology degree to pursue his art career.
Finding out that he is great at bringing something back to life, the talented artist has been using historically worn and aged metal to craft life-size animal sculptures. His prized portfolio includes a crocodile, shark, eagle, horse, dragonflies, seahorse, chameleon, and more.
As cited in Farm Weekly, the Australian artist’s work of art is heavily influenced by his father, a farmer from Narembeen in the eastern Wheatbelt. Growing up on a broad acre farm also enabled Jordan to have access to various recycled tools, retired machinery parts, and scrap metal.
“There’s no way I would have picked the medium of recycled metal if I wasn’t a farmer’s son,” Jordan admitted “I got started with it because dad said ‘this is all you can use’ when I first started out, so it’s definitely had a huge influence on my art.”
“Being out on a farm you have a lot to do with animals, so my sculptures have also been influenced by that aspect as well.” Jordan added.
Each year, Jordan creates about 12 sculptures, each taking him anywhere from 3 days to 3 months to complete. His most recent work (and the largest) is a colossal sculpture of an extinct African rhinoceros. It weighs over 700kg and took the talented artist about 500 hours to create on his family’s farm.
“It’s always been on my list of animals that I wanted to build,” Jordan shared. “The native animals are generally soft and cuddly and furry — there’s nothing wrong with those animals.”
“But I am drawn to the dangerous, wild, big, larger animals,” he added. “I mean, the rhino reeks of that — the strength and the power and just the sheer size of them.”
His sculptures are on display throughout several states, including Narembeen, Quairading and Margaret River. His latest work, the massive rhino, is showcased at an exclusive Perth restaurant.
With many buyers scooping up his animal creations, Jordan is happy that his chosen subject is a big market.
“… It is nice that I picked a form of art that appeals to so many different people,” the metal artist said. “It’s nice to be able to do that as an artist because it kind of enables me to keep building new animals.”
Jordan accepts commission and encourages his clients to supply a few materials of their own for him to weld into their piece, to create some sentimental value.
“Usually the buyers will provide me with a bit of their old farming gear,” Jordan shared with Farm Weekly.
“I’ve used old cast iron bits from a Sunshine harvester, which they don’t make any more – and those parts would have been 80 to 90-years-old.” Jordan said, explaining what materials he has used.
“It’s nice to weld those really old pieces into the sculptures and help preserve that piece of history that bit longer.” The gifted metal artist added. “The sculptures also help show the different materials in a new light.”
Here’s a gallery featuring more of Jordan Sprigg’s out of this world sculptures!
To see more of this talented artist’s work please visit his Instagram page.