Hoppity Horse
Jake Paron

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2026
5.5 x 2.5 inches
77 pages
Archival inkjet print
Screw Binding
First Edition, Edition of 30

Jake Paron makes work inspired by looking. His practice utilizes video, participatory installation, and experiential research to consider the politics, histories, and forms of use embedded in cartographic representation and physical form. He lives and works in Burlington, Vermont.

While Paron was walking along a fisherman’s path along the Raritan River, he found a deflated yellow rubber horse on the frozen ground. The horse was laying by a shrubby tree in between the Kin-Buc dump and the river. The degraded yellow rubber looked like stone. The horse was covered with stars and semi-circles; simplified forms borrowed from American Western saddle iconography. The words ‘Hoppity Horse’ in a western font surrounded a large star on its body. A rusty metal air valve stem protruded from the rubber. A pool of water had collected and frozen in a depression of the deflated form.

This 1960s-era children’s toy was sitting in a New Jersey coastal salt marsh. Similar marshes further north in the state were used to film the first American Western films. The large expanses of grasses in these marshes resembled the vast prairies of the West. The Hoppity Horse transports its rider through time and space.

sub50 is an independent, artist-run publishing project based in Highland Park, NJ.

All books made by hand and editions of <50. No exceptions.

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sub50 is an independent, artist-run publishing project
based in Highland Park, NJ.

All books made by hand and editions of <50.
No exceptions.

Projects
Events
About