What Does Eadweard Muybridge's Horse Have to Do With a 600-Foot Mural at Coachella?
Published about 17 hours ago • 4 min read
Liberation by Hervey Garcia
600-foot kinetic mural, Indio, California
Mexican visual artist Hervey Garcia created Liberation, a 600-foot kinetic mural made from over 500 handcrafted stencils. At first glance, it looks like a colorful wall. But the magic happens when you're moving. As cars drive past at 35–45 mph, the still images blur together into animation. A galloping horse stretches, shifts, morphs into a winged Pegasus, and finally lifts off into a bird soaring through a starry night sky. It is not a screen. There is no electricity. Just paint, sequence, and motion, and the result is breathtaking.
“I put my soul into this mural, and people have embraced it. That’s what really matters to me.” -Garcia
See
This idea of turning still images into moving ones isn't new. It goes back over 140 years to a man with a bet, a horse, and a camera. In 1878, English photographer Eadweard Muybridge set up a row of cameras along a racetrack to answer a question people had argued about for years: Does a horse ever have all four feet off the ground at once? The answer was yes. His sequential photographs, "The Horse in Motion," didn't just settle a debate. They cracked open something entirely new.
He placed his images onto a spinning drum called a Zoetrope, and suddenly, those still frames became a galloping horse again. Motion from stillness. Life from a sequence of images. It was one of the first moving pictures ever made.
Eadweard Muybridge, The Horse in Motion
Muybridge called his projection device the Zoopraxiscope, and with it, he projected his photographs onto a screen for audiences in San Francisco. People were stunned. Cinema as we know it grew directly from that moment. Liberation honors that legacy. Garcia drew directly from Muybridge's horse photographs, the same horse, the same gallop, and stretched it across 600 feet of concrete so your movement becomes the projector. You are the Zoetrope spinning. You complete the artwork.
Muybridge used a series of photographs to create the first moving image. Garcia creates hundreds of unique stencils and paints them in sequence, and as you pass, the movement appears.
Garcia painting the mural using hand-cut stencils
Given the mural's allure, people wondered whether it would be too distracting or even unsafe, but the artist quickly addressed their concerns. “I designed a safe animation that requires you to drive at least 35 mph (the speed limit allowed for safety is 45 mph),” he wrote. “Not to mention that this animation cannot be perceived directly by the human eye from a car; you need a co-pilot to record it on a cell phone. That makes it even safer. Thank you for being mindful of everyone’s safety! We are good humans.”
Hervey Garcia and Casey Musgraves, Middle of Nowhere
The "Middle of Nowhere" kinetic mural came about through a dynamic, collaborative effort between seven-time Grammy-winning singer Kacey Musgraves, muralist Hervey Garcia, and local city entities. The mural debuted in April 2026 in Indio, California, which is home to two of the biggest music festivals on the planet: Coachella and Stagecoach.
The timing was spot on, as every spring, hundreds of thousands of people pour through that valley. Musgraves sang her song "Middle of Nowhere" in a surprise appearance at Coachella. The mural is more than just a wall. It is a living, moving extension of her music. And the city of Indio was all in, backing the project as a bold statement about what public art can be during the city's most-watched season.
Say
Hervey Garcia transformed a freeway overpass into a moving work of art, but it only comes alive when you are moving. What does it feel like to know that you complete the artwork?
Eadweard Muybridge spent years chasing the truth of a single moment: a horse mid-gallop, all four feet off the ground. Is there a moment in your own life that felt impossible to capture, but you just knew was real?
From Muybridge’s spinning drum to Garcia’s 600-foot wall, artists have always found ways to make stillness move. If you could freeze one thing in motion (an animal, a person, a feeling) and turn it into art, what would it be?
Do
If you find yourself near the Coachella Valley, swing by the Fred Waring Drive bridge in Indio and drive past at 35-45 mph. Let a wall take your breath away.
Make a flip book! You don't need a wall or a bridge. All you need is a stack of sticky notes or a small notepad.
On the last page, draw a simple shape. It could be a bird, a flower, a stick figure...
On each previous page, move that shape just a little bit.
Flip through the pages quickly with your thumb.
Make your own Zoetrope...It's kind of a flipbook on a wheel!
Loving the Weekly Wonder?
If the Weekly Wonder has sparked your curiosity or added value to your week, please buy me a coffee to say thanks or consider upgrading to a paid subscription today. Your support directly funds the time and research it takes to build every single issue. If upgrading your subscription is not feasible, spreading the word means a lot!
About the Artist: Hervey Garcia
Visual Artist & Muralist who lives in Los Angeles, CA & San Luis Potosí, MX
WALL TCS-Worthless Analog Land Line Tele Communication System "I started with just a couple of them, and then I just put up more and more and more," artist Dave Gatzmer said. "Each one has a story to it, [but] I was just putting them up as kind of a goof. People come by, take pictures, go along their way… some people blast by they don’t even notice it and they’re thrilled when they do notice it. When I get about five or six of them, I climb up there." See High on a wooden barrier running...
I See What You Mean, Lawrence Argent, 2005 The 40-foot tall Blue Bear, designed by Lawrence Argent is formally named “I See What You Mean™, 2005” The Bear can be found peering into the Colorado Convention Center and has become a favorite of tourists and locals alike. Argent felt it important to focus on what it is like to be a resident in Denver when a convention is taking place. “I’m always interested in what might be going on in there, the exchange of information, ideas, and ideologies but...
This summer, I’m trying something a little different.Every week, I’ll share one artwork by one artist that has stayed with me. Sometimes it made me laugh or feel something indescribable. Sometimes it challenged what I believed. Sometimes I simply couldn’t stop thinking about it. These aren’t necessarily the “greatest” works of art. They’re the ones that sparked wonder for me. I hope these stories help you discover a few artworks that stay with you, too. Do you have Pareidolia? "Canface" by...
