White Horse

‘White Horse’ is a life-sized racehorse sculpture installed at the British Council on the Mall, London. Following shortlisting for this £100K British Council commission, Wallinger researched and developed the proposal during 2008. In 2009 Wallinger’s proposal was chosen, it was installed in 2013.White Horse extends Wallinger’s conceptualisation of a sculpted horse as design, in photomontage and in edition at about 1/8th scale. Lifesize realisation and the relationship to the location were important factors in the new research. Visually, a horse on a narrow plinth resembles a horse that has lost its rider. The connotations of the site led to installation on a low, shallow Portland stone plinth that allows public interaction while being maquette-like, suggesting a larger realization. White Horse’ is, in fact, in turn, a scaled-down version of a proposal for a 50m-high (164ft) sculpture for which Wallinger won The Ebbsfleet Landmark project in 2008 for what would be the UK's biggest public work of art. This design has been very widely disseminated and gained public recognition. Technical research at Slade developed new methods to capture a live horse digitally in 3D in order to realize it as a sculpture. A horse named Rivera Red - partly owned by Wallinger – was scanned in a white light scanner. The scan was moulded into a robust resin, white marble dust and steel structure. Sectional scanning a live horse also required old-fashioned sculptural knowledge and skills to unite the segments. The significant environmental and structural research for the Ebbsfleet horse has been disseminated. The pose is historic; it looks natural through familiarity (Stubbs) but is not a natural pose for a horse. It is a pose used for confirmation of a thoroughbred horse. White Horse will be at this location, facing down the Mall for at 2 years before international exhibition.