Horses and lens-based media came into conjunction with Eadweard Muybridge’s experimental photographs of a horse at gallop in 1872 which reversed the accepted beliefs about animal locomotion by proving that all four hooves leave the ground at once. These famous images have proved the inspiration for more recent work such as Steven Pippin’s Laundromat Locomotion (Horse and Rider) 1997 which were based around Muybridge’s invention of sequential triggered photographs which prefigured film.
This show extends the relation by looking at how the image of the horse is being used in current work in photography and video. A number of artists are working with this image; possibly because, as John Berger suggests, as our relationship to animals becomes more remote and ritualised representations become more prolific; as if to take their place. The horse image is chosen perhaps because it is a repository of different, conflicting associations about power, obsession and sexuality. The exhibition includes work by Janet Biggs, Lucy Gunning, Tim MacMillan, Meloni Poole and Jane Quinn.