START POINT PRIZE – Prize for emerging artists

The large installation consists of colourful ceramic objects, with irregular organic shapes, mostly longitudinal, suspended freely, laid or mounted in different ways on a metal armature. They are supplemented by other objects and photographs on the wall. Individual parts of the installation have their own titles (which suggests, among others, that they could be conceived as autonomous works) which are quite peculiar, mysterious and poetic – Go Man Go, War Admiral, Sea the Stars, Man o’ War, Rainbow Quest... A simple search on the internet reveals that they are names of the most famous racehorses of the 20th century. The references to the world of horse racing are found at other places in the installation as well: a photograph shows a detail of a thoroughbred, the ceramic objects are combined with the bandages which are used to protect the sensitive and exposed legs of horses. After all, even the colour of the objects resembles their brown hair (e.g. the detail of a horse shown in the photograph) and the fanciful jerseys of jockeys. However, it is not a literal transposition of the racing environment into the gallery space, rather it evokes certain feelings and characteristics which are connected with it, such as the beauty of highlybred animals, their energy and the perfection of their movements, the unique atmosphere at the races and the traditional aesthetics surrounding them. (mf)