LocationKansas City Zoo at Swope Park |
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Artwork by: Deborah Butterfield
Installed: 1995
Medium: Bronze
KCMO’s One Percent for the Arts Program
Deborah Butterfield’s horses can be found in major museums across America. But in the Kansas City Zoo, there’s more to her sculpture than meets the eye. At first glance, Bonfire (reclining horse) and Meridian (standing horse) appear to be merely curving vines and pieces of bleached driftwood. Take a step closer and you’ll realize they are actually cast bronze–masterfully disguised to replicate their original organic forms. In addition, an emotional interplay exists between these two life-size horses that have been placed together in close proximity to the living creatures around them.
Nearly 200 hundred years after the area’s first fur trading post was settled on the bluffs of the Missouri River, Kansas City is preparing to honor the French pioneer Francois Chouteau who established it, and the Native Americans with whom he traded. Francois Chouteau...
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