Exhibition

The Museum of Natural History is pleased to present the Canadian Premiere of Roberto Dutesco: The Wild Horses of Sable Island. This exhibit spans 20 years of iconic photography of the wild horses from Canada’s beloved Sable Island. It will be on view from 6 June until 19 October 2014.

Public Opening Event

Be the first to see Roberto Dutesco: The Wild Horses of Sable Island. Meet Roberto Dutesco, see this beautiful exhibit, and learn about this amazing Island on Thursday, June 5, at 7:30 p.m.

Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, located at 43.933 Latitude and 60.007 Longitude, is the site of over 475 shipwrecks since the early seventeenth century. Sable Island was seen as a fearful place for hundreds of years: the “Graveyard of the Atlantic. Never permanently settled, Sable Island has seen temporary occupation by shipwrecked sailors, who have transported convicts, pirates, and wreckers. The first recorded shipwreck was of one of Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s ships in 1583.

The wild horses, named for the island they inhabit, are now the only terrestrial mammals on Sable Island. Abandoned there by sailors long ago or cast ashore from wrecks on the many sandbars that surround the island, this feral herd has managed to thrive in an austere, unforgiving environment that offers not a single sheltering tree and just sea grass and rainwater ponds for sustenance.

“Sable Island exists today as it always has, mysterious and secluded, surrounded by fog, lost in time, waiting to reveal its secrets and memories. Every grain of sand and every wave has its own story. According to the latest data, more than five hundred ships have found their resting place in the sandbanks of Sable Island. I attempted to photograph the stories of what is future and what is past; what is hidden and what is lost beneath the dunes, ocean, and time; of the horses and the stories they silently hold, each with its lifespan and existence, each with its measure of time.“
– Roberto Dutesco

Roberto Dutesco is a photographer, poet, and filmmaker in New York. Born in Romania, he studied Photography in Montreal, where he moved as a teenager. Dutesco soon became a sought-after fashion photographer. With the spirit of a globetrotter, he portrayed prominent personalities of our times, such as Pierre Trudeau, the Dalai Lama, and Mikhail Gorbachev.

After moving to New York in the early nineties, he devoted much of his time to several now-completed projects: “The Wild Horses of Sable Island,” “The American Sandscape,” “Rocks and Things,” “Flowers & Dreams,” “Brincusi - The Endless Column,” “The Human Landscape,” “Waters” “The 14th Dalai Lama” and the poetry book “Ethereal Reflections.” Roberto’s travels have taken him through more than sixty countries and fascinated him with this “One World” in which we all live and share.

His short films “Times Square” and “Sable Horses” have been screened and favorably reviewed in several film festivals across the U.S., culminating with the multiple award-winning documentary “Chasing Wild Horses” - a CBC / Arcadia Production. The “Sable Island Journey” has been his main focus and dedication. Since 1994, his efforts to document and showcase The Wild Horses of Sable Island have played a favor in the conservation and protection of Sable Island.

Museum of Natural History
1747 Summer Street,
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Artist

Roberto Dutesco is an internationally acclaimed artist, photographer, filmmaker, poet and explorer. His work spans over 35 years and over 75 countries. Works from his 25-year journey to capture the beauty and undisturbed freedom of the Wild Horses of Sable Island® have been shown in exhibitions in the United States, Japan, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Korea, Canada, and Brazil.

These works are currently on view at the Wild Horses of Sable Island Gallery® in Brooklyn. Established in 2006, the formal Soho gallery is one of the longest-running single-themed shows in New York City and was chosen by Art Architecture Design as one of fifty must-visit places.

Driven by the belief that art and beauty transform how people think about conservation, Roberto's efforts, work, talks, and charitable activities, along with the Chasing Wild Horses documentary, were instrumental in driving international awareness of Sable Island and securing official protection for its wild horses.