Extinct Animals (Auroch), 2018
Plaster of Paris, cast from the artist's hands whilst performing the extinct animal's shadow
12 x 26 x 11 cm
4 3/4 x 10 1/4 x 4 3/8 in
4 3/4 x 10 1/4 x 4 3/8 in
MC0228
Copyright The Artist
Further images
This sculpture is an individual and unique artwork. This pose has also been re-performed and cast as a contributing part of a full set of 16, which has been designated...
This sculpture is an individual and unique artwork. This pose has also been re-performed and cast as a contributing part of a full set of 16, which has been designated by the artist to be a separate and unique artwork.
The collection of cast hands depicts different animal species whose extinctions were caused by humans. The artist has cast his own hands in poses that playfully recreate an approximation of the animal in shadow. They are a memorial but also remnants of a detached and futile resurrection.
The Auroch, is an extinct species of large wild cattle that inhabited Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle and the European bison, crossbred with Steppe bison. The species survived in Europe until the last recorded aurochs died in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland, in 1627.
Already in the times of Herodotus (fifth century BC), aurochs had disappeared from southern Greece, but remained common in the area north and east of Echedorus River close to modern Thessaloniki. Last reports of the species in the southern tip of the Balkans date to the first century BC when Varro reported that fierce wild oxen live in Dardania (southern Serbia) and Thrace. By the 13th century AD, the aurochs' range was restricted to Poland, Lithuania, Moldavia, Transylvania, and East Prussia. The right to hunt large animals on any land was restricted first to nobles, and then gradually, to only the royal households. As the population of aurochs declined, hunting ceased, and the royal court used gamekeepers to provide open fields for grazing for the aurochs. The gamekeepers were exempted from local taxes in exchange for their service. Poaching aurochs was punishable by death.
According to a Polish royal survey in 1564, the gamekeepers knew of 38 animals. The last recorded live aurochs, a female, died in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland, from natural causes. The causes of extinction were unrestricted hunting, a narrowing of habitat due to the development of farming, and diseases transmitted by domesticated cattle.
The collection of cast hands depicts different animal species whose extinctions were caused by humans. The artist has cast his own hands in poses that playfully recreate an approximation of the animal in shadow. They are a memorial but also remnants of a detached and futile resurrection.
The Auroch, is an extinct species of large wild cattle that inhabited Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle and the European bison, crossbred with Steppe bison. The species survived in Europe until the last recorded aurochs died in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland, in 1627.
Already in the times of Herodotus (fifth century BC), aurochs had disappeared from southern Greece, but remained common in the area north and east of Echedorus River close to modern Thessaloniki. Last reports of the species in the southern tip of the Balkans date to the first century BC when Varro reported that fierce wild oxen live in Dardania (southern Serbia) and Thrace. By the 13th century AD, the aurochs' range was restricted to Poland, Lithuania, Moldavia, Transylvania, and East Prussia. The right to hunt large animals on any land was restricted first to nobles, and then gradually, to only the royal households. As the population of aurochs declined, hunting ceased, and the royal court used gamekeepers to provide open fields for grazing for the aurochs. The gamekeepers were exempted from local taxes in exchange for their service. Poaching aurochs was punishable by death.
According to a Polish royal survey in 1564, the gamekeepers knew of 38 animals. The last recorded live aurochs, a female, died in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland, from natural causes. The causes of extinction were unrestricted hunting, a narrowing of habitat due to the development of farming, and diseases transmitted by domesticated cattle.
