The Island of Pal

Anne-Farrell_The-Island-of-Pal-copy-940xLittle red skiffs float on undulating waters along with armchairs, fully made beds, and spiraling severed horses' heads in the throbbing air. Three toy horses are posed on synthetic turf in a theatrically raked trapezoidal corral bordered by tiny rope footlights. No bridles or saddles are ever in view; these are wild horses temporarily and ever-so-lightly penned in by a white picket fence. Enclosed inside the skewed geometry and oblique angles the equine visitors—a palomino named Pal, a buckskin called Bonnie, and her sometimes partner, the black-coated Clyde—are here to entice playmates. Inside a bricolage gilt frame a ten-minute video containing all of these disparate constituents (and new characters too) offers a dream narrative of these fantastical beings, delighting in an idyll of grasslands and wildflowers.