Looking at other artist's work based on Warhorse - 04/10/2022

Looking at other artist's work based on Warhorse

Daisy Jackson / 04/10/2022

In order to create my own work, it is always important to reflect on other artist's work and gather new ideas. Of course since it is early days, I do not exactly know what my end result of this project will be despite having a few ideas which are subject to change. I really want to experiment and push myself in numerous ways during this concentration on Warhorse. 

On this blog post, I have gathered numerous work from other artists displaying their own interpretations of Warhorse.

Featherstone Warhorse:

Luke Perry created the Featherstone Warhorse as a celebration for the 100th anniversary of World War One.

This has been a piece of artwork that I have known about for years. Despite probably not choosing to take a physical route in terms of this project, there is nothing stopping me from experimenting. Using wiring would be quite interesting and I can express a lot in terms of emotion. For example, looking at the relationship between Albert and Joey, I could entangle wires to represent their bond and how close they are. I can experiment so widely with this or even traditionally with pencil and so on. 

Warhorse live:

I was vaguely aware of Warhorse live but Izzy at uni reminded me of it's existence. Once again, another portrayal of Warhorse but with physical elements - sculpture. However, this sculpture is actually able to move and function which is really interesting to observe. I am unsure if I will create my final pieces in a sculpture form, however, I have nothing against experimenting with 3D elements as long as it is able to be mass produced for the end products. 

I really love the presentation of the horse as it appears quite rough and reflects what Joey the horse had to go through. Throughout everything he often found himself scared but felt reassured by Albert which is something I am taking great interest in. I feel like I could take elements of this way for my work. For example, the approach I take could possibly have a rough presentation which can deliver Joey's story in an interesting way that I want to explore.

I was considering linocut prints for my final piece (of course not set in stone yet as it is early days) but the roughness and inconsistency of this approach can represent the emotions felt by numerois characters. I feel like this would be really interesting and can be mass produced/delivered extremely well. My main intention for this project is for the audience to understand Albert and Joey's relationship as well as the development of their story. 

What are my next steps?

I think before experimentation comes, I want to be able to focus on Joey and Albert first. I think creating rough studies will help generate further ideas and will allow me to understand the characters in more detail. I want to capture their relationship with each other and eventually elevate this to a mass produced form. 

I will also analysis other artist's work that create art in a way that I want to for this project. Either these are horse centred artists or linocut prints. Since I mentioned that I wanted to possibly create birthday cards and prints, I could also look at any Warhorse themed cards and see if I can play around with these. I think this would be extremely fun to do and would have a unique take on the book.