Cloverdale Sculpture Trail sculptor, Pierre Riche of Watsonville, is heading for Burning Man after receiving a grant. Amongst the many sculptures scattered across the desolate landscape will be one created by Pierre after receiving a grant from the Coalition for Healthy Nevada Lands.
Pierre’s sculpture is a 10-foot-tall sculpture, “Golden Possibilities”, made of sheets of cut metal depicting a rearing palomino horse. When installed at Burning Man, it will be one of 10 horses that will make up “Wild Horses of the American West,” an exhibit aiming to raise awareness of wild horse populations. According to the Healthy Nevada Lands Coalition, wild horse overpopulation in the West has resulted in environmental impacts, traffic fatalities and deaths of horses due to dried up water resources. The “Wild Horses of the American West” exhibit”, will raise awareness of wild horse populations.
“I love sculpting horses because they are beautiful, powerful creatures, but also have an amazing historical connection to humans,” Riche said. “There are not enough resources to help wild horses right now as they are undervalued and overpopulated. We hope that this project will make a statement about what’s happening.”
“Golden Possibilities” took Riche three months to complete. He worked on it nearly every day, preparing a template, creating a rough drawing, and manipulating sheets of laser/plasma cut steel sheets around the frame. “At the end, it was a grind,” he said. “It was pretty stressful. But it worked out.”
Some of the horse sculptures, including “Golden Possibilities” from Burning Man will be transported and exhibited at the Reno/Tahoe International Art Fair in mid-September.