Rose on Horseback with Tail (1974/2012)

Rose English’s productions feature a diversity of co-performers including musicians, dancers, circus performers, magicians and horses and often include elements from opera, circus and high society events. Rose on Horseback with Tail (1974) is a photograph of the artist from a still from Quadrille (1976), a film of one of the English's earliest performance works staged in the dressage arena of an Equestrian event in Southampton. Six women appear dressed as horses, wearing aprons that cover their upper bodies, leather harnesses, horse tails and hoof high heels. In an outdoor area marked off by ceramic horse figurines and watched eagerly by an unsuspecting audience, the women perform a dance based on dressage, their movements stilted by cumbersome hoof shoes. Full of beauty, humour, playfulness and criticism, the work highlights the fetishization of women’s bodies and explores issues around gender roles, where dressage can be seen as a metaphor for power struggles and relationships.

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