Visual Artists' News Sheet | November – December 2021
Organisation Profile
Dynamic Power MATTHEW WILKINSON INTRODUCES THE HORSE – A NEW PROJECT SPACE IN DUBLIN. THE HORSE IS a new project space in the centre of Dub-
lin which aims to present a programme of emerging, established and outsider artists and to explore the boundaries of contemporary art, encompassing performance, pedagogy, film screenings and workshops. I founded The Horse earlier this year – an idea which came about more by accident than a strategic business plan. Since moving to Dublin from Los Angeles in 2019, I have concentrated efforts on finding an affordable studio space. This unrequited search was resolved by buying a building, renovating it and working from there. Since this building is far too big for just my studio, I realised I wanted to open a project space. As an artist, one of the most challenging things for me is to find an outlet for showing my work. So the venture of a project space (I hope) will provide some relief for people who have the same difficulties in getting their work out there. Situated in the last remaining coach house on Bethesda Place (off Dorset Street), The Horse has held previous lives as a car wash, garage and a makeshift home. Although it is a listed building, the ground floor had previously been opened up with steel beams, making for an ideal space in which to show art. After removing literally truck loads of detritus, the renovations began. As paint went on the walls and the roof was made watertight, the smell of hay kept manifesting itself; it is from this that the space gets its name.
From its inception the space has been very much a DIY situation – from programming to management, everything is run by me. I hope that as the shows unfold, they will become autonomous to an extent, but who knows – this mission is very much unplanned. The only vision is to keep the show on the road. I very much believe, especially in these uncertain times, that experiencing art first-hand (from both the exhibitors’ and viewers’ perspectives) is essential to excavate us from the stress and drudgery of the pandemic. Being new to the city, I do not know anyone in the art community, so naturally the programming for The Horse began with me bringing in artists whose work I admire. I should also point out that The Horse is always open to interesting propositions. The inaugural exhibition at The Horse was ‘Dynamic Power’, curated by Suzanne Egeran, featuring my own work – a hybrid sculpture – a film by experimental filmmaker Cynthia Madansky, and new drawings and a performance by Katie Holten (16 September – 16 October). Themes of empowerment and transformation ran through the group show, as well as the notion that by harnessing collective energy, we might create change. The reception and support from the Dublin art community on the opening night was overwhelmingly positive and totally heart-warming: Egeran’s curatorial vision set a high bar for forthcoming programming at The Horse. The current exhibition, titled ‘Outlaws in the Pleasure
Garden’, runs until 27 November and features work by Yaloo (LIM, Ji Yeon), Bradley Krebs, Ned Stasio, Rui Yang and Zhuoyun Chen as well as participating curators, Yun (Zhuoyun Chen), Jacob Schpall and Niels Bugge. The curator’s words offered here give an insight into their vision, but also convey how The Horse aims to offer a platform for a multitude of voices: “‘Outlaws in the Pleasure Garden’ is a gathering of shape makers from all corners of the world. The artists have chosen to remain playful in their engagement with tools and materials often utilised for adverts and action games. They have been brought together with the desire to show a different face of this medium, not monsters or machine guns, superheroes or sleek movements of particles preceding the logo for Major League Baseball. Here, instead, is a place where other impulses converge, where abstract thoughts and difficult questions are posed by shapes and formations. Like sandcastles, or hands playing with the reflection of sunlight in a pond, interaction here comes before following a path towards a predetermined place”. Matthew Wilkinson is an artist based in Dublin and founding director of The Horse. thehorsedublin.xyz @thehorsedublin
Matthew Wilkinson, Boat – FPPS Prototype stage (Prototype therapy for the realization of indulgent fantasies of my lifelong dream), 2021; photograph by Heron White, courtesy of the artist and The Horse.
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