PADDINGTON.- Pony presents three recent performative video works by David Collins in which he engages horses in acts of control and surrender. Describing these exercises as “human-animal collaborations”, Collins sees them as analogies for psychological struggles and power relationships.
In Riptide (2016), for instance, artist and horse meet in a subtle but stubborn confrontation: Collins pushes the horse, the horse pushes back. Dwarfed against the animal’s size and strength, the artist’s hand is commanding, but also comforting and revering. Flesh and fur fills the screen as power transfers between the two. In this physical exchange, mutual respect and familiarity are palpable thanks to the artist’s upbringing on a farm with horses in Perth. But, in these videos, horses hold more than sentimental significance, they are metaphors for the sublime—the universal experience that mixes fear with wonder.
These emotions are discernible in Jett Rink, (2015-2016), despite the fact that both artist and horse are, at points, barely visible. Unclothed but covered in thick and glossy molasses, the artist is licked by a black horse, its fur and eyes also gleaming. This is an act of surrender for Collins, who is near-blinded by the dense and dripping substance. Visual details reveal themselves and disappear within the black screen, producing a dark psychological space. In it, threat transitions to trust and a profound, non-linguistic understanding.
There is something sci-fi and cinematic about Collins’ shining black shell, which looks more metallic than organic. Drama and emotion are also heightened through slow motion and high production values, filmic qualities that each of the works share. I Wish I Were Your Hero (2015), for instance, draws directly on the history of cowboy Westerns, recreating the cliché image of brave hero aback a bucking horse. In this version, however, the artist is dressed in modern day street-wear and the motif repeats on loop. Idealised fictions reach from the past into the future it suggests, sampled and recycled within our present through a collective imagination and personal desires.
In these videos, the powerful and intelligent ponies perform as actors with equal command of the screen. Through their symbolic presence, popular culture and spiritual ritualism appear not as opposites, but as interconnected elements of our social and psychic lives. Together they speak to a human compulsion for catharsis, Collins proposes, the need for emotional release.
David Collins was born in Perth, Western Australia. Specializing in photography and video media at Curtin University, he graduated with First Class Honors in 2010. His work has been presented in solo exhibition at Perth Centre for Photography, Jarvis Dooney (Berlin) and Fehily Contemporary (VIC), and he has participated in group exhibitions such as the Pingyao Photography Festival (China). His work has been reviewed in Australian Art Collector Magazine, Art Guide Australia, Scoop magazine and The Age. His work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery Of Western Australia, and the University Of Western Australia’s Lawrence Wilson Gallery.
