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| Marcos Ramirez ERRE was born in 1961 in Tijuana, Baja California. He studied law at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California and painting in the studio of Alvaro Blancarte. Ramirez has had solo exhibitions at Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco (2002); the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (1999); and the Institute of Visual Arts (Inova), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1999). His paintings, sculptures, and large-scale public artworks illuminate politically charged situations, often expressing the complexities of working as an artist on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border.
Toy an Horse is a small-scale version of a large, 33-foot-high outdoor sculpture commissioned for a site-specific exhibition entitled inSITE97. The original Toy an Horse occupied a traffic island at a border-crossing site, straddling the boundary line between the United States and Mexico. The double-headed toy horse—one head facing Mexico, the other toward the United States—is a powerful reminder of the interdependence of the two cultures. The sculpture references the legendary Trojan horse of Virgil’s Aeneid, but in Ramirez’s version the work’s lattice strips of wood allow the viewer to see into and through the horse’s body. Any concealed soldiers would be no longer hidden, trumping its value as an effective invasion tactic. In its contemporary context, a two-headed Trojan horse raises questions about who is invading whom, and whether we see the interchange between our cultures as a kind of invasion.  (For Grades 3-5) What animal is this sculpture made to look like? Why do you think it has two heads? What is the story of the Trojan horse? How big do you think the real sculpture was? Why is this one so small? |
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Marcos Ramirez Mexico, born 1961 Toy an Horse wood, metal and hardware, edition 1 of 10, 1988 Museum purchase and gift of Mrs. Bayard M. Bailey, Mrs. Mc Pherson Holt in memory of her husband, Catherine Oglesby, Mrs. Irving T. Tyler and Mr. and Mrs. Scott Youmans by exchange 1999.11.a-b © Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego |
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