BRIGHTON & HOVE.- The Royal Pavilion Garden, Brighton was host to an unusual visitor the morning of the 19th August, 2015, when Australian artist David Collins rode through the grounds on a Welsh D horse in Indian-inspired costume.

David is currently working at the Royal Pavilion researching themes relating to George IV’s love of horses. George built the Royal Stables 1804-1808, when he was Prince of Wales; an enormous complex comprising stables for 46 horses and an indoor riding school. The stables are now Brighton Dome’s Concert Hall, whilst the riding school has become Brighton Dome’s Corn Exchange space.

David and eight fellow artists, working under a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts and the Western Australia Department for Culture and the Arts, have been drawing on the Royal Pavilion’s historical archives and Brighton & Hove Museums’ collections, as part of their research for an exhibition in Australia in 2017. The exhibition will draw inspiration from the Royal Pavilion’s Chinoiserie interiors, and George IV’s lavish taste.

David said: “The horse is a reoccurring motif in my work, and I was interested in how George IV’s stables were apparently the inspiration for the development of the Royal Pavilion. When I’m riding I experience the same escapism I imagine he felt while building the Pavilion.”

David Collins was born in Perth , Western Australia in 1988. He studied Art at Curtin University of Technology, specialising in photography and video media, and graduated with first class honours in 2010.

Collins has held solo exhibitions at the Perth Centre for Photography, Linton & Kay, and Venn Galleries, Perth ; at Fehily Contemporary and Edmund Pearce Galleries, Melbourne ; and Wagner Art Gallery , Sydney . He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and awards including the Pingyao photography festival in China , and as a finalist in the Perth Centre for Photography’s Iris Awards in 2008, 2011 and 2013.

His work has been featured in publications including Australian Art Collector, Art Guide Australia , Scoop and The Age, and is held in collections including the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the University of Western Australia ’s Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.