Andrew Sim Four Horses and a Sunflower (Actual Size)

Andrew Sim presents ‘Four Horses and a Sunflower (Actual Size)’ at The Modern Institute Bricks Space, a new body of work made in response to their 2020 residency at Villa Lena Foundation, Italy.

Sim's practice draws upon their everyday experience, conscious and unconscious, simultaneously creating forms and characters that represent Sim’s experience of Queerness and the visibility of the cis/het gaze. Sim paints archetypes and cultural images in the foreground of their paintings, carefully considering the pivotal time to use certain imagery. These autobiographical moments document Sim’s use of symbolism and the duality and evolution of Queer lives.

Sim presents a new body of work using a horse as the focal character. The horses are serene, poised, and elegant, motionless but simultaneously glancing to the right of the canvas, not necessarily gazing at the future but calmly watching beyond the landscape in which the viewer cannot see. In comparison to Sim’s previous body of work - which primarily uses werewolves as the lead characters - there is a shift in the artists' perception of the observed existence of the cishet gaze that subconsciously led to the creation of the newer works. The werewolves’ eyes are anxious, directly seeking the audience with each form holding onto one another, gripped hands, these are influenced by the confrontational environment in which the artist was in at the time. In contrast, the horses stand tall and tranquil, unaware of the audience, a moment of peace within oneself. The paintings of the horse began as primary sketches at a residency in Italy, a countryside location, withdrawn from the everyday stresses imposed on Sim and a liberating time that gave space for Sim to reflect on their gender presentation and how this lay unchanged without external narratives. This calmness is echoed in the use of the imagery of the horses, symbolism of that metamorphic period.