The story of the toy horse \ La historia del caballo juguette

 

To me now the symbolism of the horse is spiritual, it's a cyclical newel. I remember feeling emboldened by this horse so much, it gave me courage in remembering my mother. I made many smaller pieces from a cast directly off this horse I found.  later created two different installations in Madrid consisting of seven two and a half meter high origami horses in reinforced cardboard. 

Inspired by William Kentridge I also made a small animation of the moment in individually drawn stills from photographs. Carousel - Sequence 1 - YouTube





This is the third version of  an illustration and I wanted to present it like the drawings from nature books for kids in the seventies and eighties. I still have some of these books  in Madrid with their beautifully drawn illustrations painted in gouache of habitats or foxes dens. 

The version above is in Spanish while the previous ones were in English and in felt - tip and pencil. - The texts reads in English as - 

The story of the toy horse.

  1. In July 2002 my mother died while waiting at the hairdressers.

  2. I finished teaching the same day for the summer and I spent a lot of time with my father.

  3. The period directly after my mother passed I felt so open, and very sensitive in my pain.

  4. Things that at other times I would have overlooked now took on a deeper meaning.

  5. While working in the garden of my family home I found a toy horse, I assumed it was either mine or one of my brothers.

  6. This simple toy symbolized so much to me at this time and it gave me much strength.

  7. For me it was a sign from my mother. An act of love in the past that now built a bridge between us, a kiss to demonstrate that still she was with us.

  8. Always I remember the silence in the period after the death of my mother. like a crowd clapping and applauding and suddenly....nothing .. a painful eco and empty silence.


I originally made the horse in matches as a way of covering up the gaps beneath in the roughly put together wooden frame a bit like pebble dashing a house or 'gotele' in Spain. It also meant that I could complete the sculpture from start to finish which I had to to do  because I couldn't afford to get it cast. 


Toy horse - 2016-17

Dimensions - ( H x W x D ) -

Medium – fibre glass, resin, matches, shellac, aluminium.  


The original matchstick horse was sold at a charity auction in 2011 but I had made a fibreglass mould which I later used to make the sculpture.

Matchstick horse made from a mould. (kenlambert-artist.blogspot.com)

 The second horse was cast in bronze and although already painted, the final colour will be repainted in an UMBROL 48 mediterranean  blue enamel paint. 


Toy horse – Bronze – unfinished

Dimensions - ( H x W x D ) -

Medium – bronze, enamel paint


The blue forest - Installation La tabacalera - Aug 2013 (kenlambert-artist.blogspot.com)


Works at Colegio Amoros (kenlambert-artist.blogspot.com)



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