the wind is heavy which blows between a horse’s ears by California based Artist Cole Sternberg is a continuation of his conceptual dialog, The Free Republic of California. This forthcoming intervention serves as the inaugural installation of the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara’s Facade Project, activating the glass doors of the museum on the Paseo Nuevo Arts Terrace, and the museum's Chapala Street storefront storage, to bring art to the passerby while helping with museum way finding and audience development.
The artwork juxtaposes two seemingly disparate visuals: the serenity of a horse in a pasture and text "leap" and "treat engineered generational trauma". Yet, these elements are deeply intertwined, both symbolically and specifically. The horse, Red, is a packhorse who has endured his own trauma—falling on the job, nearly dying, and now rendered unable to work due to PTSD. He now lives on land reclaimed after years of chemical poisoning, a poignant metaphor for recovery and resilience.
This title is an amended version of the Arabian proverb: “The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears.” It plays on the irony of humankind’s iconography and respect for horses and the land with its concurrent physical disrespect of horses and the land they gallop on.
Engineered trauma manifests in countless forms: institutional violence, warmongering, environmental destruction. We hide under desks to shield ourselves from both earthquakes and mass shootings. Our homes are consumed by wildfires and bombings. These burdens, heavy and omnipresent, demand acknowledgment—and perhaps, healing.
Cole Sternberg is a conceptual artist whose practice contemplates humanity’s existential quandary: that of being hopelessly destructive, yet forever and inevitably linked with nature. Through varied media (including painting, sculpture, installation, performance, photography, film and writing), Sternberg positions the aspirations of humankind against the dominant and regenerative forces of the environment and the arbitration of time. For the artist, the conclusion is unavoidable. Human enterprises -- art, language, history, law, and republic -- are ephemeral / illusory endeavors that attempt to reflect, parallel, and challenge the ascendency of nature to no avail.
In recent years, Sternberg’s painting practice has centered on the environment acting as the true artist. Some pieces have incorporated poetry, suggesting imprecise narratives or descriptions that can’t be fully apprehended through words. His photographs interrupt time, while historical and cultural myths are pursued and deconstructed in sculptural installations and film. These confrontations frequently materialize in instances of erasure; erasure of marks and words, erasure of history, or the erasure of the natural environment. Sternberg’s works remain subversive in their unremitting search for truth, noting humanity’s attempts to create beautiful permanence while failing admirably. https://www.colesternberg.com/about
