Throughout his career, Barry Flanagan has been challenging the status quo in sculpture by using different materials and techniques in his works. As a student in London in the 1960s, when other artists were using industrial methods and materials, Flanagan began shaping sand, burlap, felt, and plastic, focusing on the process of artmaking rather than the finished, permanent object. Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, Flanagan has been working with bronze casting, gilding, and stone carving. For Hare on Bell on Portland Stone Piers the artist pairs a hare and a bell--both frequent subjects in his work and both symbols of fertility. Regardless of the sculpture's many possible meanings, the playfulness of the leaping hare and the formal, elegant bronze bell provide an interesting study in contrasts. The elongated rabbit communicates a sense of spontaneity and delight, while the supporting structure of the bell evokes the longstanding tradition of bronze casting.