Faith XLVII’s EMPIRE Bronze Sculpture Becomes a Monument to Power, War and Obedience
Faith XLVII’s EMPIRE is a bronze horse sculpture first created in 2020 as an intimate limited edition, before being realised in 2024 as a large-scale public bronze installed at the entrance of Optenhorst in Paarl, Western Cape. The work transforms the horse into a charged symbol of war, nationalism, blind loyalty and the burden of human power.
For an artist whose career has always moved between the street, the sacred, the political and the deeply human, Faith XLVII has long understood that public art does not need to shout in order to unsettle. Her murals often carry the feeling of something half-remembered, as if the city itself has produced an image from its own wounds. In EMPIRE, that same intelligence enters bronze, a medium historically bound to permanence, authority, commemoration and state power. The result is not simply a sculpture of a horse. It is a counter-monument disguised as a monument.
Faith XLVII’s large-scale Empire bronze sculpture EMPIRE, installed at Optenhorst in Paarl, Western Cape, 2024. Image copyright Mike Hall.
EMPIRE BY Faith XLVII
A powerful animal subjugated by humankind .
Inescapably majestic and elegant, powerfully muscular in form, with an innate nobility.
This beast bears the weight of our projected nationalism and patriotism,
upholding statues of oppressive statesmen and war ‘heroes’.
Historically, these were the creatures men took to battle,
to fight and die alongside them with unrelenting loyalty.
Yet dignified with their own sense of agency, independent from human quests.
Within this discrepancy between their physical power and their subservience,
they become archetypal symbols for notions of human power struggles,
the horror of war, nationalism and blind loyalty to leadership.
Faith XLVII EMPIRE Bronze Sculpture: in progress. Image copyright Faith XLVII
Faith XLVII EMPIRE Bronze Sculpture: From Intimate Edition to Monument
The original EMPIRE bronze was created in 2020 and is Faith XLVII”s first bronze sculpture. The edition sculpture measured 40 x 19.5 x 30 cm and was produced in an edition of 16, giving the work the intimacy of a collected object while already carrying the symbolic weight of something far larger.
Faith XLVII’s EMPIRE, 2020, the intimate bronze edition from which the later monumental public sculpture evolved. Image copyright Faith XLVII .
In 2024, EMPIRE was expanded into a large-scale bronze sculpture and installed at the entrance of Optenhorst in Paarl, Western Cape. Faith XLVII describes the monumental work as the culmination of months of production, with contributions from Everard Read, Bronze Editions Fine Art Foundry, and Trevor and Otto at the Bronze Age Foundry.
The Horse as Metaphor in Faith47’s EMPIRE
The horse has always occupied a difficult place in the history of public sculpture. In bronze, it is rarely just an animal. It is usually a vehicle for human ambition. It carries the general, the king, the statesman, the conqueror. It lends its body to authority, making power appear noble, disciplined and inevitable. Faith XLVII reverses that logic.
In EMPIRE, the horse is described as a powerful animal subjugated by humankind, majestic and muscular, yet burdened by the projections of nationalism, patriotism and war. Historically, horses were taken into battle, made to fight and die alongside them with absolute loyalty, while remaining separate from the causes imposed upon them.
That is the emotional voltage of the work. The horse has power, but not sovereignty. It has beauty, but not freedom. It has nobility, but is forced into service. Faith47 turns that contradiction into a metaphor for human systems of control, where bodies, symbols and loyalties are absorbed into the machinery of empire.
Faith XLVII’s large-scale EMPIRE bronze sculpture, installed at Optenhorst in Paarl, Western Cape, 2024. Image copyright Mike Hall.
A Counter-Monument in Bronze
Bronze carries history heavily. It is the material of civic squares, military memory, colonial figures, triumphal statues and political permanence. To work in bronze is to enter a language already loaded with authority. Faith XLVII does not avoid that history. She uses it.
EMPIRE takes the visual grammar of the equestrian monument and removes the usual centre of power. There is no heroic rider. No victorious commander. No elevated human figure claiming history from above. Instead, attention returns to the animal, the being that carried the weight, absorbed the violence and remained dignified despite its conscription into human conflict.
This is where the work becomes sharp, Faith XLVII is not making a sentimental image of animal suffering, She is exposing the architecture of obedience. The horse becomes an archetype for loyalty exploited by leadership, for strength made useful to power, for beauty absorbed into propaganda, and for the quiet horror of bodies being asked to serve causes they did not choose.
Faith XLVII‘s large-scale EMPIRE bronze sculpture, installed at Optenhorst in Paarl, Western Cape, 2024. Image copyright Mike Hall.
Reading Faith XLVII’s Horse Sculpture: Stress, Command and Resistance
To deepen our reading of EMPIRE, GraffitiStreet invited Kate Jones, an experienced equestrian and Co-Founder of Common Room Projects, to view the sculpture in person at our Chichester gallery and respond to the horse’s body language. Her observation adds an important layer to Faith XLVII’s work, moving the interpretation beyond symbolism and into lived knowledge of equine behaviour. Rather than appearing calm, heroic or triumphant, the horse reads as alert, pressured and restrained. The lowered head, backward ear, tense eye area and slightly open mouth suggest an animal responding to command rather than moving freely. This physical tension strengthens Faith XLVII’s wider metaphor: a powerful, noble body caught within systems of war, nationalism, loyalty and human ambition.
“To someone who knows horses, this is not a relaxed animal. The ear is turned back, the eye area feels tense, and the slightly open mouth suggests pressure or resistance. The horse looks focused on what it is being told to do, rather than moving freely. That makes EMPIRE so powerful, because it captures the emotional truth of a horse under command.” Kate Jones, experienced equestrian and Co-Founder of Common Room Projects.
EMPIRE does not behave like a monument to victory. It behaves like a monument to the cost of obedience. Its horse stands with strength and grace, but beneath that beauty is a darker question about history itself: how much of what we call power has depended on the loyalty of those given no choice?
Faith XLVII’s EMPIRE, 2020, the intimate bronze edition from which the later monumental public sculpture evolved. Notice the reign is broke. Image copyright Faith XLVII .
View Faith XLVII’s EMPIRE at GraffitiStreet Gallery
Faith XLVII’s EMPIRE bronze sculpture Artist Proof is available to view in person at GraffitiStreet Gallery, 25A West Street, Chichester, West Sussex. Collectors are invited to visit the gallery, arrange a private viewing, or enquire directly for further details, pricing and acquisition.
Faith XLVII EMPIRE: Key Facts
Artist: Faith XLVII / Faith47
Title: EMPIRE
Original work: 2020
Medium: Bronze sculpture
Dimensions: 40 x 19.5 x 30 cm
Edition: Edition of 16 with Artist Proofs
Large-scale version: 2024
Location: Optenhorst, Paarl, Western Cape
Themes: War, nationalism, loyalty, obedience, power and the horse as symbol