Edith Dekyndt’s installation consists of a long velvet curtain pierced at regular intervals by steel nails and a video showing archival footage of a 1930s dance marathon. The title They Shoot Horses refers to Horace McCoy’s Depression-era novel (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?), which achieved broader fame with Sidney Pollack’s film adaption in 1969. The film remains one of the more poignant portraits of the grueling disparities of society and desperation of the working class during the Great Depression in America.
