Text size:

Birthing Britney artist to unveil Barbaro sculpture in NYC

By Justin Rocket Silverman | jsilverman@am-ny.com

January 25, 2008

The NYC artist who depicted Britney Spears giving birth and Hillary Clinton turns to dead horses--Derby winner Barbaro, and a local horse.

Best known for his life-size sculpture of a nude Britney Spears giving birth, controversial artist Daniel Edwards is back with a political statement attached to an equine work.

"The Barbaro Memorial" depicts two upside-down horses, which he plans to unveil in Central Park in April, during the same week as the Kentucky Derby. It will later be displayed at a West Village gallery.

The first horse is meant to represent Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner who was euthanized last January because of deteriorating health stemming from a leg he broke during a Triple Crown race. The second animal in the sculpture is Smoothie, a Central Park carriage horse who died last September when he ran into a tree after being spooked by a musician.

Edwards hopes his newest work will inspire the city to ban carriage horses in Central Park, a proposal introduced in the City Council last year. He also wants to inspire a member of Congress to sponsor a bill that would make horseracing tracks nationwide post the injuries and fatalities that have occurred there.

Despite the political overtones, the artists maintains that it was the form of the horses that first inspired the sculpture.

"It's like writing a script and then finding the right actors to portray the characters," Edwards said Thursday.