The hillside carvings of white horses in Wiltshire and Berkshire are ancient drawings that have undergone change. Through neglect and recutting, restoration and changing aesthetic preferences they have arrived at their current forms. As part of landscape they are viewed from different angles and in different conditions. Though they seem immutable they are in constant change. In my new interpretations of these images I have played with the distortions that often arise from photographic images of the horses. They lay oblique or foreshortened, creating new animals that only vaguely reference the anatomy of the modern horse. In the tradition of change these chalk drawings have previously experienced, I have felt able to make further small modifications to their shapes to suit my needs. In addition to ideas about how we visually perceive them I also recognised them as emblems, icons or even logos. I saw them as a Wiltshire equivalent to the Spanish, 'Osbourne' black bulls; former advertising hoardings that have survived regulation against roadside hoardings and are now considered artworks and emblems of Spain. In my 'Chalk Horse' series of sculptures and drawings I have imagined them as three-dimensional animals, roadside hoardings and 'Grand Projects'. They are now more mobile and could be relocated anywhere.
