Be More Like A Horse, 2021 

Be More Like a Horse marks a pivotal moment in Lydia Smith’s transition from figurative sculpture to abstraction. Created during a 2021 residency in France, the work originated from a life model holding a horse’s skull, prompting Smith to reflect on the animal’s enduring presence within human history.

Long associated with strength, intuition, and partnership, the horse becomes a lens through which Smith considers contemporary ideas of power and intelligence. The title functions as both instruction and provocation, suggesting a return to embodied knowledge at a time increasingly shaped by artificial systems.

Bridging ancient symbolism with present-day concerns, Be More Like a Horse establishes themes that continue to define Smith’s practice: the relationship between nature and technology, instinct and control, and the shifting boundaries between the organic and the engineered.

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Each of Smith’s sculptures is accompanied by an editioned print that functions as its “DNA blueprint”, generated through the artist’s sculpting and scanning process. Printed as a fine art Giclée on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, one of the most archival papers available, the print operates both as documentation and as an independent artwork, preserving the sculpture’s essence in two-dimensional form.

For Smith, the print is an essential extension of the sculpture. Through digital processing, the form moves between dimensions, existing as both physical presence and flattened image. This pairing reflects her ongoing inquiry into how identity now operates across physical and digital realms, where presence is increasingly distributed, and a digital counterpart has become integral to how objects and individuals are seen and understood.

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