AIR artwork The Rhinoceros Project

Anne Beck and Michelle Wilson launched the Rhinoceros Project in September 2016 at the San Francisco Center for the Book’s Roadworks event. The project has since travelled to sixteen sites – some for just one day, some for longer residencies – hosting sewing circles where all were welcome to add stitches to the Rhinoceros and engage in dialogue. While engaged in the intimate, meditative act of sewing together, our participants become friends, and discuss endangered species, how their plight relates to human activity and globalization, and how our values need to change. Together, through a shared sewing circle, a community is built.

In 2011, the Western Black Rhinoceros was declared extinct, and as of 2016, the Northern White Rhinoceros is down to only three remaining animals. As this species is decimated and fades once again from human memory, Albrecht Durer’s 1515 print will become a significant relic. As an early colonial displacement, the rhinoceros foreshadows the most pressing environmental issues in our post-colonial world.

Techniques: embroidery
Culture: America
Geographic Location: North America, California
Credit Line: Gift of Artist in Residence January - March 2018