Where can you find a life-sized stainless steel horse sculpture? Wait, it’s also complete with moving parts waiting to canter away (almost) at the push of a button.
Outside the doors of The Kentucky Horse Park visitor’s centre “The Mechanical Horse” is ready to run – in slow motion.
While bronze sculptures of famous horses including Man O’ War and Secretariat dot the grounds of the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky, one contemporary piece stands out: “The Mechanical Horse” by New York artist Adrian Landon. Part art, part engineering feat, the sculpture with flared nostrils and peaked ears is designed to reflect the beauty and movement of a real horse.
Push a button and the 100 bearings, 30 feet of chain, 23 articulating joints, and one motor integrate to imitate the fluid movement of a horse in motion. The artist told the Kentucky Horse Park magazine, “The Mechanical Horse was the single most challenging, tedious and exciting project I have ever done.”
The piece was not commissioned by the park, but was selected for one-year loan as part of the facility’s contemporary art project.
“The Mechanical Horse” is on view until October 2016.
Global Travel for Horse Lovers 