Cave Painting #23: African Elephant
Terry Brewer (Santa Fe, NM)
Mixed media on panel, 20” W x 23” H
*** 2nd Place Award Winner ***
Artwork:
This image was inspired by Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture Not Afraid of Love in which an elephant that can’t be ignored, is draped in a white sheet. I’ve chosen to further the references to the Ku Klux Klan, and by extension any terrorist group, and placed the ignorant, awkward subject amongst the horror, destruction and genocide taking place in Gaza.
Artist Statement:
While working as a volunteer in Nepal I made numerous treks in the Himalayas. As I traveled across the land, I was reminded how modernization, social upheaval and climate change was rapidly altering the fragile nature of the environment and culture. I pondered prehistoric depictions of now extinct species left by early humans and I imagined how a variety of our successors around the planet, in a possible not-too-distant future world, might render the endangered and extinct species of our time and theirs. What materials will be used, what style? Think post-apocalypse cave paintings. As this series develops, I’ve been inspired, if that’s the best word, by the current social and political climate, and veered a bit off specific endangered species, and allowed the obvious threat to all life on earth to be treated as subjects. How this future scenario plays out is anyone’s guess and limited by one’s imagination. One thing certain is that surviving sapiens will continue to leave a mark.