Death on a Pale Horse

In Kushana Bush’s ‘Death on a pale horse’ 2018, four horses take centrestage, stampeding over a group of entangled figures. The riders try to stay abreast of their steeds; however, one has a bucket over his head and another is ensnared in a wayward set of reins. Cloud-like shapes in the background suggest animal forms, and underneath the wooden platform, an egg-and-spoon race is conducted in the dark. According to Bush:

‘I was very consciously looking at Dürer’s woodcut ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ 1498. It kept popping back into my mind as an essential image for the contemporary world in crisis, the stampede of climate change, war, famine.’

Bush’s intricately detailed paintings borrow from different times and realities, and depict a range of human interactions and behaviours, from acts of devotion and torture to erotic couplings. Offering a somewhat dystopian view of human relations, Bush addresses universal themes – love and hate, revenge and salvation, devotion and rejection, good and evil – that resonate across cultures, geography and time. She draws on disparate influences, including Indian miniature painting, Japanese ‘ukiyo-e’ prints, the rich world of European medieval manuscript painting and events from modern life, and her combinations of seemingly unrelated motifs – from urns and brooms to Slazenger logos – connect different historical periods, behaviours and cultures. Intimate in scale, but dramatic in content, Bush’s painstakingly created compositions foreground the artist’s devotion to illuminating human behaviour.

Exhibited in 'The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (APT9) | 24 Nov 2018 – 28 Apr 2019