Artists > 2012: Flights of Fancy > Marcia Farquhar

Work

Marcia Farquhar rode a life-size rocking horse across Tatton Park. This belated fulfillment of childhood wishes delivered the full measure of oddly retarded adult behaviour, as the rider discussed equine matters, the role of the horse in the English psyche and the place of the young female rider from Freud to Thelwell. Farquhar's grandmother was rumoured to have announced 'The horse is a noble animal' if ever gossip erupted in the dining room, upon which everyone present would know to return to form. The artist has never been so trained, and it remained to be seen whether her rides would deliver a real rider or simply a ruminator on issues of class, land, bestiality, brogues and bridles. 

The Horse is a Noble Animal will next be exhibited at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, from March - December 2011. 

Biography

Marcia Farquhar is an artist working in performance, photography, video and object-making. Her site-specific works have been staged and exhibited internationally in museums and galleries, as well as in lecture theatres, kitchen showrooms, pubs, parks and leisure centres. 

Farquhar?s performances are conceptual in nature and often precariously balanced between the prescribed and the unpredictable ? socially open, broadly embracing of circumstance, and resolutely focussed in the live and unrepeatable moment. They have also made frequent and subversive use of popular cultural forms such as TV cookery, pop-psychology, the Punch & Judy show, the fashion catwalk and the guided tour.

Farquhar was born in London and received her MA in 1998 from Stuart Brisley?s department at the Slade School of Fine Art. She lives and works in London and Berlin. Recent work includes the book Marcia Farquhar?s 12 Shooters, a 192-page document of her collaboration with 14 artist-filmmakers, published in 2009.

www.marciafarquhar.com