the Roar recurs across Ferdi B Dick’s animal sculptures
South African-born sculptor Ferdi B Dick builds many of his animal sculptures around a recurring gesture: an open mouth with an extended tongue, capturing the form of a roar. Rather than representing aggression, Dick connects the gesture to release and exhalation, drawing a parallel with Simhasana, the lion’s breath in yoga practice.
The motif appears throughout his practice at different scales, from mirror-polished stainless-steel public sculptures to gallery works and cast crystal. In Embrace the Amazing Whale, the gesture takes the form of an 8-meter-tall public sculpture on the waterfront of Zhanjiang, China, installed in December 2023. Lion Roar brought the same language to gallery-scale works at Everard Read in Johannesburg in 2023.
Crystal Roar translates the gesture into a smaller and more fragile material form. The series includes Dragon Roar, Lion Roar, Bunnie Roar, and Ellie Roar. Each sculpture begins as a digital model developed using the same tools employed for Dick’s large-scale public works before being cast in crystal through the lost-wax process.
lion, elephant and rabbit sculptures from the Crystal Roar series in multiple cast crystal colorways | all images ©Ferdi B Dick
Crystal, color, and light define each sculptural form
Metal oxides are introduced during casting to produce different colors, with each requiring a specific firing temperature. Once cast, the sculptures are cut, ground, sandblasted, and polished by hand. The crystal alters the way each form interacts with light: violet carries and catches light differently from amber, while darker crystal absorbs it. The material gives the sculptures a combination of weight and fragility.
The Crystal Roar works form part of a broader sculptural language that moves between monumental public works, gallery pieces, and smaller collector sculptures. While the scale changes, the recurring gesture remains.
Artist Ferdi B Dick studied 3D animation and ran an animation studio in Cape Town for 20 years before turning to sculpture full-time. He is now based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with public sculptures installed in Taiyuan, Zhanjiang, and Guangzhou, China.
Bunnie Roar Crystal in blue, showing the frosted translucent surface of the work
Ellie Roar Crystal shown in multiple cast crystal colorways
Bunnie Roar Crystal shown at two scales, from a hand-held sculpture to a larger version