Elephant on the Moon 2020
Elephant on the Moon was created for the Feral exhibition in Cuba and is grounded in a real event from 2012, when Namibia transferred ten rhinoceroses and five elephants to Cuba under a program called Noah’s Ark II. Removed from wildlife reserves and flown across continents, the animals became the center of international concern. Animal welfare groups criticized the prolonged transport, the conditions of care, and the deeper ethical issue of displacing animals from their ecosystems into total human dependency.
After arrival, the elephants were held in isolation for extended periods and required tightly controlled diets, imported supplies, and artificial environmental regulation to survive. For young elephants—who typically remain in close physical proximity to their mothers for years—this rupture represents not just relocation, but psychological disorientation and trauma.
The work draws on this context to explore estrangement and forced adaptation. It plays on the familiar phrase “the elephant in the room,” transforming it into a visual and conceptual shift: from elephant in the room to elephant on the moon. This displacement suggests a condition so extreme it borders on the surreal—an animal removed so completely from its world that its new environment feels extraterrestrial.
To anchor the piece in its Cuban setting, rum—an emblem of national identity—is introduced as a symbolic life source, pumped into the elephant’s trunk. This gesture underscores the absurdity and violence of imposed survival systems, where cultural signifiers replace natural ones. The work ultimately reflects on captivity, dependency, and the uneasy human tendency to normalize what should remain impossible to ignore.
You must be logged in to post a comment.