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To a great extent nineteenth-century urban life moved at the pace of horse-drawn transportation, and the evidence of the horse was everywhere: in the piles of manure that littered the streets attracting swarms of flies, in the iron rings and hitching posts sunk into the pavements for fastening horses' reins, and in the numerous livery stables that gave off a mingled smell of horse, harness oil and hay. In 1880 New York and Brooklyn were served by 427 blacksmith shops, 249 carriage and wagon enterprises, 262 wheelwright shops, and 290 establishments dealing in saddles and harnesses. And they were eminently necessary! On a typical day in 1885 one engineer making a study of urban traffic conditions counted 7,811 horse-drawn vehicles, many with teams of two or more horses, passing the busy corner of Broadway and Pine Street! Today, it's hard to imagine our lives without gasoline and the internal combustion engine, however, Kevin O’Callaghan and his students at the School of Visual Arts certainly did. Contemplating America's horse-drawn history, Kevin and his School of Visual Arts students borrowed from the past and re-imagined how our modern services might be provided in a world without engines. Carriages and sleighs which were considered beyond restoration were dramatically and satirically remodeled with the goal of showing what was…and what might be. When Mr. O’Callaghan called upon Avatar to move these whimsical and wacky creations to an exhibition site in Manhattan we were thrilled, as we always are when Kevin calls upon Avatar for assistance with his projects. With Avatar's help these sensitive and fabulous works of art were moved into and out of Manhattan without incident. Here at Avatar we can only shake our heads in amazement…and wonder what Mr. Kevin O’Callaghan will come up with next! The School of Visual Arts (SVA), located in New York City, is one of the nation's leading independent colleges of art and design. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and was renamed in 1956. SVA is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD), a consortium of thirty-five leading art schools in the United States. In addition to the tireless efforts and genius of Mr. O’Callaghan, Avatar would also like to thank the lovely Ms. Adria Ingegneri and Ms. Alice Lilly for their assistance with the logistics that made the trouble-free relocation of this exhibition possible. 
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[The School of Visual Arts]
