Horse & Dog
Project Description
Horse & Dog is a film by Boyd Webb (b. 1947, New Zealand), a British artist internationally renowned for his surreal, offbeat and thought-provoking photographic and video works. Best known for blending reality and fantasy through meticulously staged images, Webb’s distinct visual language highlights the absurdities of human existence with droll humour and conceptual precision.
Shot on location in Sussex with a professional cast and crew, Horse & Dog brings Webb’s characteristic sensibility to the screen, echoing the absurdity and surrealism of his photographic practice. The film reflects his enduring interest in theatricality, constructed environments and the disquieting intersection between the natural and the artificial.
Webb moved to the UK in the late 1970s and established himself within the contemporary art scene through elaborate photographic tableaux combining sets, symbolic props and allegorical narratives. Influenced by literature, mythology and visual culture, his work constructs uncanny, hyperreal environments that question perception and representation.
A Turner Prize nominee in 1988, Webb has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. Notable solo exhibitions include Boyd Webb: Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (1987), Boyd Webb: New Works at the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm (1990), and Boyd Webb: Works on Paper at the National Museum of Art, Osaka (1998). His work has also been presented in major group exhibitions, including Photography and Beyond at Tate Gallery, London (1996).
Horse & Dog was commissioned by the Estorick Collection, Film and Video Umbrella and The Laboratory at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, in collaboration with the De La Warr Pavilion and Milton Keynes Gallery. It was exhibited at the Cube and Middle Galleries.
Bio
Boyd Webb (b. 1947, New Zealand) is a British artist whose multidisciplinary practice encompasses photography, film, sculpture and performance. His meticulously staged works combine surreal imagery, theatrical settings and dark humour to explore perception, transformation and the relationship between reality and fiction.
Webb was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1988 and has exhibited internationally at institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm; and National Museum of Art, Osaka. Recent presentations include Polaroid Still Lifes at OstLicht, Vienna (2025), and Zurück in die Zukunft: Photos & Photo-Based Works at Galerie Klüser, Munich (2025–26).
Project Details
Year: 2002
Artist: Boyd Webb
Work: Horse & Dog
Commissioned by: Estorick Collection; Film and Video Umbrella; The Laboratory, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford
Collaborating venues: De La Warr Pavilion; Milton Keynes Gallery
Format: Film
Exhibited at: Cube and Middle Galleries
Country: United Kingdom