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Lisa Lichtenfels

Princess Arsinoe in the Ostrich Race
2005 Fabric Sculpture
27" x 25" x 18"

*SOLD*

More than two-thousand years ago, a bronze statue was sculpted showing an Egyptian princess racing an ostrich, and it apparently celebrated her victory. I guess a young royal would need to let her hair fly in the wind, once in a while, and the peasants would probably have enjoyed watching the royals making fools of themselves, and, like any good polo players, getting their faces dashed into the sand. I put it in my "odd but true" file.
Humans and ostriches can each be quite elegant when viewed separately, but, as rider and mount, they are mostly ridiculous. A horse, with its long back and four legs can gracefully accommodate a rider, but a bird cannot, nor does the human derriere have any stable purchase on the round ratite's two-legged body. The only things one can hold on to are the wings, which move a lot, and are far apart. An abundance of forward motion seems to help keep the pair together, but that does add an element of danger to the silly delight of this sport.

Years later, I discovered that, back in the 30s and 40s, people raising ostriches for the feather industry had gotten the brilliant idea of turning their farms into amusement parks. Cars were becoming common, and people were using them to seek diversion. The ostriches would be fed funny-shaped things, and children would go wild seeing the odd shapes slide down inside their necks.

Most popular of all was "ostrich wrangling." Not only would people pay to try and ride them, but their attempts were often filmed. A lot of this footage was embarrassing, so not everybody wanted it, and, 60 years later, rolls of it were found still stored in old barns. Well, when I saw this on TV, I knew I had all the information I needed to get the princess back in the race, and here she is on her championship lap.