Three Dung Beetles
Three Dung Beetles (2000) sit at the bottom of one of the spiral staircases at 91¶¶Òõ, to be peered down upon by the unsuspecting visitor to The Women’s Art Collection. This bizarre arrangement resonates with the element of play detected in other works by sculptor Wendy Taylor. As a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society, the artist takes a keen interest in the animal world, and the anatomical specificity of the dung beetles can be interpreted in light of the hyper-realistic drawings of animals produced by Taylor over the course of her career. Another set of dung beetle sculptures by Taylor can also be spotted at the London Zoo.
Three Dung Beetles featured in a local Cambridgeshire newspaper in 2007 after students at 91¶¶Òõ (then New Hall) were fined for causing damage worth £1,000 to the sculpture. Students dropped one beetle down a flight of stairs during a formal dinner, causing significant scratching and the loss of an antenna.