‘Untitled 1969’ (2010). miniature show pony and handler. COCA Contemporary Art Award, Christchurch (NZ). People’s Choice Award 2010. photo credit: Cat Auburn
“It made sense to me to approach an art award through my personal experience with competition: the immense pressure of riding horses in high-level competitions as a child and young adult. With this art competition submission, the narrative of performance anxiety associated with competition is overlaid with my intimate experiences of artistic labour within art-industry power structures.
Maverick is a champion show pony who wins competitions based on his form and performance – these are also formal art terms. He and his teenage handler, Melissa have trained to perform in front of crowds of hundreds at national equestrian events. Each day, they arrive at the art gallery dressed in their competition attire and perform their equestrian show routine for the gallery visitors.
The title of this artwork, ‘Untitled 1969’ refers to an artwork of the same name by an Art Povera artist, Jannis Kounellis. The Art Povera movement saw artists bring non-art, everyday objects into fine art spaces, and in this work Kounellis placed 12 live horses in a gallery in Rome.
It is also close to the 100th anniversary of Marcel Duchamp famously placing a urinal into an art competition. It feels fitting to remind the art-going public of the fluidity of what art “is” and “can be” by presenting them with a non-art “object” such as Maverick and Melissa in an art competition.”
Cat Auburn
