Background Noise
canvas, oil / sound
2022
Power and strength, vulnerability and vulnerability characterise horses, this duality is also inherent in humans.
An empty background highlights the figure, making the images sculptural and targeting the optic for detail. The distortion and fragmentation of the animals deprives the figures of their form, upsetting the balance of integrity.
When distorted, they don't look like horses,
they become something else. Transformed
bodies are frightening and at the same time empathic.
Horses historically have been influenced by humans to become a non-willing participant in global tragedies.
The reference for the project is photographs taken from battlefields in the First World War, with no images of humans - only views of empty fields and numerous dead bodies of horses left in the torn landscape. According to some estimates, almost 8 million horses died in the four years of the First World War.