Contemporary Treatment of Animal Forms: The Conflict Between Realism and Heterogeneous Materials

Design an animal sculpture whose realism of form is contradicted by its material. Show a large animal — a standing horse, a reclining bull, a leaping deer — modelled with complete anatomical accuracy at full life size, every muscle group, tendon and rib correctly observed, the pose natural and specific rather than heroic. Detail the material as flatly at odds with that realism: the entire body rendered in polished black granite with a mirror finish, or in bright chrome, or in a single flat matte industrial orange, applied uniformly with no textural differentiation between hide, hoof, eye and mane, so every part of the animal reads as the same substance. Show the eyes as the most disquieting detail — correctly shaped but blank and made of the same material as everything else, with no iris, no wetness and no light in them. Detail the surface as absolutely seamless with no casting line, joint or fixing visible anywhere, the animal appearing to have been extruded whole. Show it standing directly on a bare gallery floor with no plinth and no barrier, at exactly the height it would really be, so a visitor beside it is confronted at true scale. Detail the reflections of the white gallery distorting across its flanks. Show even overhead light. Photorealistic, uncanny, uniform material over accurate anatomy, low three-quarter view.