They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

I was on the hunt for gravels

for a current project,

as you do,

at a local garden centre which has a fine stock,

displayed in trays for you to compare and contrast,

to run through your fingers.

But on my way out I took a wrong turn and unexpectedly found myself

in this ’animal refuge’!!

I don’t know who to be sadder for - these horses or their creator.

Yes I do!

Someone get a gun you guys and put these poor beasts out of their misery.

But then it reminded me of a recent Garden Designers Round Table posting:

Art and Sculpture in the Garden: A Garden Designers Round Table Post

Of course in this post I had made an obvious and hackneyed plea for simplicity, restraint, quality and good taste in garden sculpture. You’d expect nothing less of me, surely?

But in an apt comment on my post Susan Cohan ( www.susancohangardens.com ) questioned, albeit rather uncertainly, the ‘good taste element’ of my gist.

Was there not a place for the appallingly bad she asked?

And I replied ‘Yes, if knowingly done’ or some such.

In my book ‘knowing’ equals kitsch and kitsch done with some sass is fun.

And so this is what I’d do with those little ponies:

A Sphinx like installation!

I’d place them in their own little garden, lets call it a sanctuary.

I’d mount them on plinths and plant around them agreeably. I am thinking  pink, purple, silver and some black.

I’ll need all their current stock ( they are only twenty quid each) and you can double that for a row on the opposite side.

And I need a massive one for the end as the focal point.

Get busy you tat producers. Every one will be talking about this. It will make Gardens Illustrated!

The ‘My Little Pony’ Garden. Or possibly the ‘My Little Sphinx Garden’

And the horses will have a happy home at last.

Maybe there’s even a movie in it!

Queue a syruppy John Barry soundtrack……………………….

R

Ps ‘They Shoot Horses Don’t They?’ was of course the title of a novel by Horace McCoy and also a film directed by Sydney Pollack.

Category: Design Bites