This year during the months of July and August I had the opportunity to create an installation which I had wanted to make for a long time.
The theme of horses in my work came about many years ago now after I had found a toy horse in the back garden of my parents house. But really the symbolism of horses has always appealed to me since studying the ´blue rider´ spiritual artists founded by Wassily Kandinsky while I was in art college.
In the blue rider group the rider and the horse symbolized the messenger bringing the news of a new beginning an alternative to the decadent lives the group believed people lead in Europe.
Other artists such as Rene Magritte painted a series of works composing of a horse and rider in a forest where sections of the textures of the painting are juxtaposed creating a beautifully subtle surrealism as only Magritte could do.
I wanted to incorporate these elements into this installation and create a scene which I hope in the end will have focused on the atmosphere rather than solely the aesthetic of the installation. A lot of this relies on the final site for the installation which will be in the basement of La tabacalera along on of the passage ways.I think finally the surreality of finding a installation like this in such a place will deepen the feeling from the piece.
The horses were made by me in May and June and stored in the basement. For the horses the cardboard had to be new but the rest of the material to create the scene was taken from the basement. The floor and the back wall is flattened cigarette boxes glued together and later painted.
There was a lot of work in getting this piece together and the collective ´Nave Trapecio´ of which I am a member helped me out especially The three Fernandos , Zeeba, Mili, Martin, German and of course Siad.
I was great to have the whole central area for the duration of August to work in and it certainly made the whole project doable. Even with a lot of the materials found in the building it still cost a lot to realize around about €1,500.00
I had to have stands soldered together for each horse, paint for the scene and horses, loads and loads of things basically and finally I had to pay some body to help me for a couple of days for the final push.
All the time while making the installation I had to clean up this central area at different stages and it´s big!! I was fairly wrecked over the summer trying to get it finished.Once I started to get going things came together. The trees were made from broom handles , styrofoam found in the basement, plaster, old cloths and branches collected from Casa de Campo in Madrid (big park like phoenix park but very brown rather than green.)
Madrid´s great like that, there is an area where they put all the branches and cuttings from the park and you can just go in a take them.I hadn´t intended using so much of the space in the central area but as I started to make the work it demanded more space.
I wanted also to try out the work in different light and during the day here there is this great light that comes in through the windows on the roof, like a spot light and it illuminated the installation beautifully.
The theme of horses in my work came about many years ago now after I had found a toy horse in the back garden of my parents house. But really the symbolism of horses has always appealed to me since studying the ´blue rider´ spiritual artists founded by Wassily Kandinsky while I was in art college.
In the blue rider group the rider and the horse symbolized the messenger bringing the news of a new beginning an alternative to the decadent lives the group believed people lead in Europe.
Other artists such as Rene Magritte painted a series of works composing of a horse and rider in a forest where sections of the textures of the painting are juxtaposed creating a beautifully subtle surrealism as only Magritte could do.
I wanted to incorporate these elements into this installation and create a scene which I hope in the end will have focused on the atmosphere rather than solely the aesthetic of the installation. A lot of this relies on the final site for the installation which will be in the basement of La tabacalera along on of the passage ways.I think finally the surreality of finding a installation like this in such a place will deepen the feeling from the piece.
The horses were made by me in May and June and stored in the basement. For the horses the cardboard had to be new but the rest of the material to create the scene was taken from the basement. The floor and the back wall is flattened cigarette boxes glued together and later painted.
There was a lot of work in getting this piece together and the collective ´Nave Trapecio´ of which I am a member helped me out especially The three Fernandos , Zeeba, Mili, Martin, German and of course Siad.
I was great to have the whole central area for the duration of August to work in and it certainly made the whole project doable. Even with a lot of the materials found in the building it still cost a lot to realize around about €1,500.00
I had to have stands soldered together for each horse, paint for the scene and horses, loads and loads of things basically and finally I had to pay some body to help me for a couple of days for the final push.
All the time while making the installation I had to clean up this central area at different stages and it´s big!! I was fairly wrecked over the summer trying to get it finished.Once I started to get going things came together. The trees were made from broom handles , styrofoam found in the basement, plaster, old cloths and branches collected from Casa de Campo in Madrid (big park like phoenix park but very brown rather than green.)
Madrid´s great like that, there is an area where they put all the branches and cuttings from the park and you can just go in a take them.I hadn´t intended using so much of the space in the central area but as I started to make the work it demanded more space.
I wanted also to try out the work in different light and during the day here there is this great light that comes in through the windows on the roof, like a spot light and it illuminated the installation beautifully.
I had worked previously on models of the installation and I was very happy with how they looked and I wanted to keep the same feel to the full size project which I feel I succeeded in doing. It was very important to me that the work looked clean and delicate keeping with the style of Japanese origami.
For the duration of the exhibition I will show a poem by Robert Frost ´Stopping by woods on a snowy evening´. I came across this poem while working on the project in the summer and I felt it just really fit the atmosphere and on reading the theme of the poem I felt more assured that it suited the sentimentality of the piece.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
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