Gregory de la Haba’s Equus Maximus

Sometimes you see something that is just wrong:

“New York multimedia artist Gregory de la Haba’s not-to-be-missed masterpiece Equus Maximus is ambitious to say the least, involving life-size taxidermy show horses… The overall effect is at once baroque and erotic, emotionally charged, and animated by a certain primitive, tribal sorcery that lends a deep soulfulness to the tableau’s splashy titillation.” – Flavorpill

And you feel the need to correct it, even if you never were particularly motivated to talk about the art you first saw months ago. If you’ve been to Jack the Pelican in Williamsburg…you’ve surely noticed this in the back of their gallery:

It’s striking, and makes me quite uneasy as it’s crammed into a dimly-lit, small backroom and you really have to scoot behind the rearing horses with obscene huge sexual organs to see all of it. What I did not see was “a deep soulfulness” the Flavorpill writer mentions. Of course, I’ve also heard it described as awesomely amazing, which I don’t buy into either. The gallery website puts it best by saying: “Over-the-top doesn’t quite capture the incredible vulgarity of it all.” Has anyone else seen it? I’m not sure if I’m turned off by the calculated attempt at shock value, or if the sexual horse thing is just too much for me. Either way, I’m pretty sure the emotional primal sorcery was lost on me.

Now I’m going to try to find something to write about that doesn’t involve horse sex or butts.