Carriage Horses - Panel Pieces

They live beside the Brown Line track, the horses that pull the carriages through the park and along Michigan Avenue. Their resting space consists of a stable and best of all, outside is a fenced-in area. Their “rolling hills” are made up of borrowed empty lots that might one day rise into a condominium. Just as the commuter returns from work on the nearby "L", the horses shed the trappings of work and relax. Neighbors come to visit, offer carrots, talk lovingly to them and think of them as their own. These are not the sleek race horses of Arlington Park or the pampered shining steeple horses of Lake Forrest. These are the huge draft horses that Carl Sandberg might have written about when describing the "city of big shoulders". Nevertheless, they are beautiful, even with their scars, not so brilliant histories and crowded paddock. Along with the police equines, these are city horses living in the urban landscape. If you get close enough to their huge bodies when they are disrobed of their bridles and carriages they can become landscapes themselves. The viewer cannot help but focus on their bulging muscles, work worn coats and hooves large enough to pull their load and carry weight. This is as much a landscape of nature as is Lake Michigan or the prairie upon which Chicago was built.

* In the late winter of 2006 the paddock’s fence line was reduced. The north east corner was replaced by the foundations of a house...

** In the spring of 2006 some neighbors, decided they didn’t like living near the horses and complained. The piles of hay were replaced by a sign announcing, “Premiere Old Town Location… Exclusively offered...” In the summer of 2007 the horses were once again allowed to graze but the paddock fence line was moved and the space was reduced.

Limited edition of 5