Inherited Gestures (Moulded), a bronze sculpture in an edition of 3 made while Payne was on the London Bronze Editions fellowship, is inspired by an ancient Indian folktale about a dog who births two human babies. This story has been a focal point for Payne’s practice and has appeared in multiple iterations in her oeuvre. In the folktale, a dog births two human babies who grow up to be beautiful women. When the dog goes to hunt for food for her daughters, a prince and a minister's son come across the two women, and ask for their hand in marriage. One daughter leaves happily, with no thought for her mother. The second daughter leaves a piece of her sari as a trail for her mother to find. When the dogmother eventually finds her daughters at the palace, the first daughter is embarrassed that her mother is a dog and hits her over the head in an attempt to murder her. The dying dogmother crawls to her other daughter; and dies in her distraught daughter’s arms. After she dies, she becomes a statue dripping with jewels for her loyal daughter. The other daughter is left with a rotting carcass.

In this piece, Payne reimagines the two daughters as dogs themselves; almost identical twins but with subtle differences, and differences in character. Each faces outwards away from each other, guarding the room. The intricate fur on these dog profile faces is made through a digital simulation of Payne’s grandmother's string hopper press; a tool used to make a Sri Lankan dish called string hoppers. Through this process of creation, Payne considers their relationship to their heritage through food and the gestures within food making. Payne finds that using her grandmother’s string hopper press to create artwork allows for a more intimate relationship with generational food making processes, whilst also being a reminder of food making as an act of female domestic labour.

The central, human face in the sculpture is based upon the Corleck head, a 1st AD Celtic sculpture, considered to be a representation of the three original ‘mothers’ or creators. The original Corleck head looks forward, backward and to the present; a representation of past, present and future. Throughout Payne’s work, the Corleck head has become a symbol of Payne’s personal feelings of being stretched across different stages of their life; in relationships, sexuality, and home.