Danial Brown
Title: Equestrian Ash
Material: Wire, foil, clay, Tree bark, dead leaves
Size: 6.5 L x 4.5 H
Horses in the past have always been a form of transportation and mobility. They have been a great aid to humans and their attempts to travel. However, modern changes to transportation have led to a lack of “use” for horses in terms of transportation. This project is an attempt to display the importance that horses still have on the ecosystem. Horses are much more help to the environment than humans tend to think. Horses with the help of farmers can practice rotational grazing and this can prevent overgrazing, which helps the grass continue to grow. The process of rotational grazing can also help decompose soil and this places nutrients back into the soil. This fire horse is an example of the power and value that horses have on the environment and how humans shouldn’t just take them as just an animal. The horse is made of clay, wire, and tree bark. This project is more of a metaphor for decay than the actual process. However, there is an example of decay within the tree bark. Due to some weathering the tree bark started to turn green due to the excess of moisture. This horse in conclusion is a guardian that is beginning to wither and decay and their flames are beginning to die out due to the lack of care and attention that humans have shown them.
Comment by Linda Weintraub
There are several admirable things about your artwork.
Your style of depiction is visually charming.
Your choice of materials adds significantly to its visual appeal.
You have included a compelling metaphor (for horse power)
It is ironic that all these qualities that are typically considered artistic assets, do not contribute to the Beyond Death theme. That is because visual appeal and metaphor distract viewers from the material process of decomposition. This work would be greatly improved if it introduced the viewer to the ways horses factor into ecosystem dynamics, which involves both life and death.
The theme you chose offers an original application of the Beyond Death theme. It is, however, also difficult to convey. In order to materialize your ideas, you would need to show that horses no longer have value for transportation. They are useful to the ecosystem when they are grazed thoughtfully. This fact is only relevant to the Beyond Death theme if you include in your work evidence that rotational grazing helps soil by adding nutrients to the soil when the horse’s manure decomposes.
In this instance, the material that would decompose is not the horse itself, but the horse’s manure. Including actual manure, watching it loose its shape in provide a growing medium for plants, might be the most effective manner of conveying your theme. What do you think?