The Statue in the Park - Valerie Fliss

The statue of the man and horse by the Lion’s bridge was a solid example of the sorts of things that we have been discussing in class.

Besides the apparent symbolism of the image, man controlling nature, the statue also made me think about this idea that ritual/art is the space between impulse and reaction. In class, we discussed how this is the biggest difference between man’s creative efforts, and animals’ creative efforts; for animals, there is no space between impulse and reaction, but instead for man we have thought, and it is that thought that becomes art.

When one looks at the statue, then, the man is rearing in the horse’s impulse. He seeks to tame its impulses so that it will do as he wants. The man is not necessarily creating a space between the horse’s impulse and its reaction, but the man is acknowledging that there is no space, and he is able to acknowledge this because he could think about it. The man uses this space to control the horse, and in taming nature he is controlling his impulses, and the impulses of the nature itself.

So, the statue can be viewed as not only man’s triumph over nature, but also his own ability to create. In reining the horse/nature, man takes ahold of that space between impulse and reaction. And the statue is a physical reminder of that action of reining in the impulses and creating a reaction, instead of just reacting.