Description

Mark Wallinger – The White Horse

‘The White Horse’ was made by scanning an actual racehorse named Riviera Red, which was partly owned by Wallinger, in order to make the mould which was then subsequently cast. Horses and horse-racing, as well its surrounding culture, have long been a great source of inspiration for Mark Wallinger’s work since the early 1990s; it ‘has an extraordinary aesthetic frisson for me’ he has said ‘which covers everything from the gambling to the magical identification with the animal on which your money rides to the sheer beauty of the thoroughbred’.

‘The White Horse’ can also be seen in terms of the historic manifestations of the equestrian monument and the hyper-realistic representations in George Stubbs’ paintings. It is caught in a moment of graceful and serene repose, but its musculature has an inner tautness that suggests the potential for sudden movement. His ears are pricked and alert, but his facial expression conveys a look of self-absorption and Wallinger captures perfectly something of the animal’s own personality and intelligence. At the same time, Wallinger’s depiction of a horse is completely and undeniably contemporary.

The sculpture is not mounted on a plinth, so that our relationship with it is immediate and intimate, and the horse is shown unbridled and riderless, so that we see it on its own and in its own right. The subject therefore seems to be the horse itself, in all its power and beauty, rather than the supporting role it has often occupied historically. Ultimately we can see the sculpture as a monument to the great qualities of the horse and our enduring fascination with them.

‘The White Horse’ is a smaller version of the monumental project proposed by Wallinger for Ebbsfleet, Kent. When it is realised, that work at 50m (164ft) high, will be the UK’s largest public art project, creating a landmark for the rail link between London and the Continent in the tradition of the numerous white horses carved out of chalk hillsides in south-west England.

Biography

Mark Wallinger was born in Chigwel (1959-l. He studied at the Chelsea School of Art and later at

Goldsmiths College where he was also a tutor from 1986. While his early work focussed mainly on social class, royalty and nationalism, his later work has turned towards religion, death and the influence of William Blake. However today he is best known for his sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Ecce Homo (1999) and State Britain (2007), a recreation of Brian Haw’s protest display outside parliament for which Wallinger was awarded the Turner Prize.

Wallinger, who also has a deep fascination with horses, has recently unveiled a new life sized sculpture of a racehorse made or marble and resin ‘The White Horse’ which will sit outside the British Council’s headquarters on the Mall for two years before going on international display.