Katharina Grosse: The Horse Trotted Another Couple of Metres, Then it Stopped

Carriageworks has commissioned a ground-breaking, large-scale work by renowned German artist Katharina Grosse. Consistent with her recent interest in "folding" space, The Horse Trotted Another Couple of Metres, Then it Stopped utilises more than 8,000 square metres of fabric, draped and knotted in direct response to the architecture of Carriageworks’ Public Space. Using a spray gun, Grosse has created a multilayered painting on the surfaces and folds of the fabric, resulting in a sublime and otherworldly environment.

Bound by months of planning for rigging points, sewing marathons, and knot-tying, Grosse is largely intuitive in the final act of painting. She comments: "It describes that moment when you go into the kitchen because you wanted to get the car keys, and then all of a sudden you don’t know why you are there… and in that moment you realise something else about yourself, something that you can’t describe; that you’re on this planet and that the scent in the air is beautiful; you are somewhere, going someplace, but then you halt; then you think 'That’s what I’m doing'… and so that’s a little bit of what we are doing. And then it also refers to my absurd need for a really huge surface to paint on…"

At Carriageworks, Grosse has challenged the conventions of painting in a new approach that is both epic and sculptural.  She is compelled by the possibilities that painting holds, the space it can occupy in our lives, and the many ways in which it lives in the world. For her, painting is a way of both thinking and feeling that allows her to retain a sense of immediacy and urgency. Thus, her gestures unfold, all at the same time, in a stream of pure colour, plunging the viewer into the depths of her toxic sublime.

Katharina Grosse: The Horse Trotted Another Couple Of Metres, Then It Stopped is the third in the SchwartzCarriageworks series of major international visual arts projects and is supported by BresicWhitney, City of Sydney, Sydney Festival and the Goethe-Institut Australia.

About Carriageworks 
Carriageworks produces and presents a contemporary program that explores contemporary ideas and issues. The Carriageworks Artistic Program is ambitious, risk taking and provides significant support to leading Australian and international artists through producing contemporary work.