Cauda Equina
Date2007
Artist
Keith W. Bentley
(American sculptor, born 1973)
MediumHand-knotted horsehair, fabric, resin, and foam form
Dimensions76 × 24 × 63 in. (193 × 61 × 160 cm)
pedestal: 12 × 90 × 48 in. (30.5 × 228.6 × 121.9 cm)
pedestal: 12 × 90 × 48 in. (30.5 × 228.6 × 121.9 cm)
Credit LinePurchased with funds donated by Martha and Donald DeWees Foundation, 2012
Object number2012-45
On View
Not on viewClassificationsSCULPTURE
Label TextCauda Equina combines Keith W. Bentley’s interest in the macabre with pointed social criticism. The artist drew on Victorian funeral rites to create a memorial to the thousands of horses killed each year in rendering plants. Made over a 12-year period, the sculpture incorporates approximately 1.4 million strands of hand-knotted horsehair collected from more than 250 slaughtered horses that function as a mourning veil.
