Western Movie, 1990
Mechanical horses, sheet lead, still and film projections, wood ramp and platform, steel railing, theater seats
Installation approximately 2400 square feet
Commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, 0H for the exhibition "New Works for New Spaces: Into the Nineties."

In this piece, thirteen mechanical horses moved continuously in front of an elliptical wall 16′ x 48′ on which were projected slides of Niagara (1857) by Frederick Edwin Church. Eight film loops of footage I took at Niagara Falls specifically for this installation were superimposed on critical areas within the projection of the painting. Viewers entered the gallery on a ramp and “watched” the piece from a sloped viewing area reminiscent of both a scenic overlook and the interior of a movie theater. The whir of projectors and the mechanical galloping of the horses combined to suggest the roar of falling water.