A YOUNG artist from York has taken a walk on the wild side with her latest exhibition.

Rosie O’Grady, 22, is a former pupil of Fishergate Primary School and Fulford School, whose parents, Sarah O’Grady and Stephe Ellis, still live in York.

Miss O’Grady now lives in Scotland having completed a four-year art degree in fine art at Glasgow School of Art.

Her latest exhibition, Camellemac, used a live camel to recreate an historical event in one of Glasgow’s best-known landmarks – the Mackintosh Building.

Miss O’Grady said she hired a camel called Kokoso to create her work, which was inspired by a 1907 event when the city’s art school allowed a camel from Hengler’s Circus into the building to be drawn by students.

She said: “As part of my studies, I learnt that there used to be an animal life-drawing room in the basement of the building and I used that as inspiration to create my art show.

“I put the proposal forward to the school and explained there was an historical precedent for letting live animals into the building and things went on from there.

“The camel we used was quite a character. He was really beautiful and really well-kept.

“He’s a ‘celebrity’ camel who gets used by the BBC and the day before I filmed him he was used on Top Gear, so he was pretty well-behaved.”

The resulting video shows Kokoso among crumbling marble statues with the camera taking close up shots of the animals face and fur.