Label Text
This is a smaller version of Kabel's large public sculpture at 42nd Street and Ingersoll in Des Moines. This two-headed stag with large intertwining antlers was inspired by an Iranian Iron Age sculpture in the Menil collection in Houston. The work interprets that form using the fallow deer as a source. Fallow deer are hunted worldwide for trophies; people seem to love this deer as much as they kill them to hold on to them. Kabel maintains that they are essentially loved to death. With their beauty and grace, Kabel has often used deer as a representation of innocence in her work. The two heads here embody love and loss, as the artist believes love is always accompanied by the fear of losing it. One deer's head has pointed alert ears, indicating a deer that is alive and vital, while the other has ears that are drooping as if dead.
Source: DMAC NEws, Sep Oct Nov Dec 2021
DimensionsOverall: 11 1/2 × 11 1/4 × 6 3/4 in. (29.2 × 28.6 × 17.1 cm)
Accession Number 2021.16
Classificationssculpture
EditionEdition of 20
ProvenanceArtist; Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 2021]
Collections
Images (3)
Robert Carston Arneson
1980
