For me, the horse’s body symbolizes the training of the form and thus, since they are inextricably linked, the dressage of the soul. I am constantly concerned with the question of how much of me is “me” and how much comes from conditioning or “the others”. If many people are to live together as unproblematically as possible in a society, manipulative control processes are essential. Hence, they are part of our cultural identity. This is how we have all learned to be influenceable. It’s what we call the school of life. In my work with the motif of the horse, I often exaggerate and distort the form in a way that contradicts our biological laws and acquired beliefs and, thus, appears absolutely grotesque. The improbable twisting of the physical form can be understood as a metaphor for the absurd and often overambitious ways in which we distort the body to adjust to prevailing ideas of perfection. From a different perspective, the same figure metamorphoses from the grotesque into the fascinating possibility of improving oneself through practice. Of even doing so – in the shamanic sense – beyond the mere physical form. The surreal contortion can thus be seen as an act of liberation from the biological corset and our associated beliefs. THE PRESSURE OF THE SOUL or THE GROTESQUE AS LIBERATION.