Comanche is Dead

Exhibition

Exhibition Overview

Comanche is Dead
Comanche is Dead
Kris Ercums, curator
Gallery 316

In October, 2013, Mexico City–based artist Diego Teo came to the KU campus as part of the Spencer Museum of Art’s International Artist-in-Residence program. Intrigued by the story of Comanche, the taxidermied horse long displayed at KU’s Natural History Museum, the artist created his own sculpture of the famed specimen. Basing his process on historic photographs of KU Professor Lewis Lindsay Dyche’s (1857–1915) preservation of Comanche in the 1890s, Teo and collaborator Dasha Chernysheva painstakingly replicated in both method and material the armature that gives shape to the horse. The artistic process, which was broadcast via live feed in the Natural History Museum as part of the cross-museum collaboration, stopped just short of covering the horse-like structure with the animal’s hide.

Once he had constructed a new Comanche, Teo buried the replica in an intimate ceremony. A modest stone with the word Comanche painted in black indicates the entombment mound as part of the current exhibition, Comanche is Dead, which also includes the artist’s original drawings and objects from the Spencer Museum’s permanent collections. This video documents Teo’s residency, with several shots comparing the Spencer Museum’s documentation of the present-day artistic process with the Natural History Museum’s documentation of Professor Dyche’s late 19th-century taxidermy process.

Exhibition images

Works of art

unrecorded Plains artist
late 1800s–1916
late 1800s–1928
unrecorded Chaticks si Chaticks (Pawnee) artist
late 1800s–1928
unrecorded Lakota artist
1861–1889
unrecorded Iyo'wujwa Chorote speaking artist
late 1800s–1976
unrecorded Iyo'wujwa Chorote speaking artist
late 1800s–1976
unrecorded Ayoreo artist
late 1800s–1976
unrecorded Northwest Coast artist
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Kalaallit (Greenland Inuit) artist
late 1800s
unrecorded Northwest Coast artist
late 1800s–early 1900s
late 1800s–mid 1900s
late 1800s–mid 1900s
unrecorded Northwest Coast artist
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Kalaallit (Greenland Inuit) artist
1800s
unrecorded Northwest Coast artist
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Plains artist
late 1800s–2007
late 1800s–1992
unrecorded Nux Sklai Yem (Klallam) artist
late 1800s–1926
unrecorded Kwih-dich-chuh-aht (Makah) artist
late 1800s–1926
unrecorded Lhaq'temish (Lummi) artist
late 1800s–1926
late 1800s–1980
unknown maker
late 1800s–2007

Events

September 30–October 16, 2013
Engagement
Gallery 316
October 10, 2013
Talk
12:00–1:00PM
307 Reception Room, Gallery 316
October 12, 2013
Workshop
9:30AM–12:00PM
Gallery 316, 307 Reception Room
October 27, 2013
Activity
1:00–3:00PM
Gallery 317 Central Court, Gallery 318, Front Lawn
December 4, 2013
Talk
5:30–6:30PM
Gallery 316

Resources

Documents