She chose to incorporate a wide variety of textures in her sculpture and jewellery, using materials such as metal, textile and glass. The natural worlds of plants and animals played a key role in the work. Ferdi drew renewed inspiration from a journey through Mexico with her family, after which she created her famous ‘hortisculptures’, including Wombtomb, in the 1966-1969 period. These colourful and very large-scale metal and textile sculptures are reminiscent of plants, animals and insects. Ferdi’s sculptural work also incorporates powerful references to genitalia and sexuality. The artist saw a natural connection between sexuality and nature, and used her hortisculptures to create her own ‘pleasure ground’.
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