CHRISTIAN HOOK
A COMPLEX AND BEAUTIFUL SERIES OF EQUINE STUDIES EXPLORING THE ANCIENT JAPANESE NOTION OF 'SHINME'
- THE SACRED HORSE
The tradition of dedicating horses to religious shrines in Japan grew from the belief that divine spirits, or 'Kami', often appeared on horseback. Over the centuries they were gradually replaced, first with statues and latterly with votive tablets. In Shinme, Christian has combined modern Japanese aesthetics with ancient ideas to create his own contemporary interpretation of the art of the sacred horse. Find out more about the collection in this fascinating short film
FROM CHRISTIAN HOOK'S EXTRAORDINARY SHINME COLLECTION WE HAVE PRODUCED SIX MUSEUM QUALITY LIMITED EDITIONS.
The fractured nature of these works refers to the concept of wabi-sabi, a Buddhist influenced notion in Japanese aesthetics that celebrates the existence of imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness as the three marks of existence. The term breaks down into ‘wabi’, defined as flawed simplicity, and ‘sabi’, which expresses the effects of age. Together, wabi-sabi speaks to the changes wrought on a subject by the passage of time, a concept which collectors will recognise as central to Christian Hook’s oeuvre.
