Painted welded steel, 124 x 90 x 54, 2005.
The rider in this group is the least imposing part of it. He is a small, plain figure in a broad-brimmed hat and a jacket with a red cuff, on a horse that dwarfs him. A red banner billows behind him, as large as he is. Nothing in his dress or bearing marks him as exceptional. The horse, the flag and the base make the group a monument to power, and they would serve any rider. The apparatus persists, and the man in the saddle can be exchanged.
The horse is white and weathered, with rust showing through in patches. Its raised forelegs are twisted like rope and its bridle is chain. It rears on a plain gray box set on small round feet, in the pose of a charge that never advances. The feet give the monument the look of furniture that could be moved to another square and set down again with its horse and flag.
A large blue sheet falls across the horse’s side and ends in a point near the base. It is the only soft form in a group of hard ones, and it hangs as ceremonial trappings hang on a mount in a state portrait. The group is fully dressed for its role while its occupant remains a minor figure, and the tyranny sits in the cloth, the horse and the pedestal.
