About the Artist: Deborah Butterfield is an American sculptor
who graduated with a BFA in ’71 and a MFA in ‘73 from the University of
California, Davis. She is best known for her horse sculptures made of scrap
metal and wood. Butterfield said she had originally wanted to her subject
matter to feature the female form but found too many of her contemporaries
taking a similar focus. Instead, she chose to use horses as a kind of
self-portrait. She has since been working almost exclusively in the equine form
since the 80s. She divides her time between time between homes in both Montana
and Hawaii. She only creates art during the winter, meaning each piece can take
a number of years to create. Some of her most stunning works are made of bronze
casts of branches, resulting in the appearance of wooden sculptures with the
durability of metal.
‘Whistlejacket’, created in 1988 of welded scrap
metal, sits tucked into a small green space between the plaza shops on Jasper
at 112 Street. Looking at old auction records, the work appears to have been
purchased in 1994. It had previously been seen at a commercial gallery in New
York City. The name ‘Whistlejacket’ likely relates to the famous painting of a
racehorse owned by the British Marquess of
Rockingham in 1762. The work was created by George Stubbs,
a painter of the period best known
for his portraits of horses.
My Thoughts: Being a
rider myself, this was one of the first sculptures I really noticed when I came
to Edmonton. That being said, I have had a hard time knowing what I think about
this sculpture. Standing so close to Joe Fafard’s life-sized bronze horse, I often find this horse looks skeletal. Furthermore, the stance of the
animal does not make it look happy or friendly. Butterfield is known to have
said her ‘horses' gestures are really quite quiet, because real horses move so
much better than I could pretend to make things move. For the pieces I make,
the gesture is really more within the body, it's like an internalized gesture’.
Unfortunately, I struggle to see this internal commentary in the rusted scrap
metal. While I enjoy the opportunity to see my favourite animals featured in a
public artwork, I find this piece does not speak to me in the same way as her
wooden or bronze sculptures.
What do you
think? Can you read more into the horse’s emotions?
