Neil Hardy

About Neil Hardy

I originally trained and worked as an architect for 13 years before seeing that automata was a far more interesting line of work. 2012 was the twentieth year I have been toiling over bits of wood and it still excites me every time I finish a new piece of work.

I became a member of the British Toymakers Guild in 1993. 

In 1994/5, I began to receive letters from abroad enquiring about the pieces and they have been sold in a number of Galleries from Paris to Japan as well as in America.

In 2005 I took part in the World Karakuri competition in Japan. Karakuri is the Japanese equivalent to automata. Out of 600 entries, 35 were invited to Japan for the final competition and I was one of a handful selected from Europe. The final event was televised on Japanese TV and I was awarded a special jury prize. My work is now in a museum in Germany. Later that year I took up a residency in Australia at the Noosa gallery in Queensland. Automata is fairly unknown there and it was hoped, through teaching and producing a few pieces for the gallery, that a new interest would be born.

Since then I have been asked to make pieces for museums in Korea and Italy and also, asked by the Japan organisers of the Karakuri, to provide 2 large works for a new museum they are creating exclusively for automata. Recently I have come back to my roots in Warwickshire, provided a circus piece for the MAD museum in Stratford upon Avon and exhibited in a joint automata exhibition with Peter Lennertz at the First Gallery in Southampton. The work has also been exhibited at various museums around the world:

  • Vente Museum, Tokyo - Japan

  • Marvins Marvelous Mechanical Museum, Michigan - USA

  • Gabriels Wharf, South Bank - London

  • Bethnal Green Toy Museum – London

  • Waldkricher Orgelbau Museum – Germany

  • Noosa Gallerey – Australia

  • Modern automata Museum – Italy

  • Sala Santa Rita Gallery - Rome

Automata are one of the few crafts that have not originated from a practical need - like pottery or glass. Its purpose has always been to fascinate, intrigue and more recently give a sense of fun and whimsy. I have tried to make pieces that basically make you feel happy to own them, that do not take themselves too seriously, and do not require great aesthetic taste to appreciate. They are like a film cartoon, something that takes skill and considerable time to make but with the sole purpose of amusing you.

I like the idea that something that often takes weeks to design and make is ultimately something so silly and pointless. With this in mind, I like to show all the intricacies of the mechanics, the way it’s put together and that there are no short cuts using pre- formed pieces, electronics or specialised materials. You turn a handle and things happen. You can see how each movement is created but the end result should be slightly magical, unexpected and whimsical.

I chose to limit my pieces to animals, partly because I was not very good at carving people, but mainly because we don’t really know what goes on in their heads, so there is more scope to explore and consider ‘what if….’ They also give us more opportunity to laugh at their antics because we recognise the stupidly in ourselves.

I like to use the more awkward lowly creatures rather than the usual animal stars, so flies, ants, mice, stick insects have all been featured along the way, and my ambition is that one day a fly might see themselves in one of my pieces and consider that not all humans want to squash them dead but rather elevate them to fine art.