My Little Pony

My Little Pony, 2022, Giclée, Various, Photography

My Little Pony

My Little Pony began with a journey through Mongolia, where LUAP set out to confront a lifelong fear of horses by learning to ride one. Travelling through the wilderness in temperatures falling to around -15°C, he placed himself in sustained physical contact with the very thing he had previously avoided.

The title draws on childhood memories of My Little Pony and the idealised world those memories represented. In Mongolia, that fantasy met the reality of being on horseback in an extreme landscape. Something once associated with toys, childhood and imagination became immediate, physical and unpredictable.

Images made during the journey became source material for Paintings and Watercolours, where the experience is reconstructed through colour, surface and memory. The works hold childhood fantasy and adult experience alongside one another, with the horse becoming both a real presence and a symbol of something once feared from a distance.