The Rhinoceros Project: “How is Your Rhinoceros Inspiring You?” Exhibit

The Rhinoceros Project is the collaborative, socially engaged craft duo formed by Anne Beck and Michelle Wilson, tracing its origins to the 2011 extinction of the Western Black Rhinoceros and the near extinction of the Northern White Rhinoceros. They create craft-based social practice platforms for community participation and transformation. Over the course of three years, from 2016-2019, The Rhinoceros Project realized its first collaborative endeavor – to transform Albrecht Durer’s 1515 woodblock print The Rhinoceros into a life-size (8’ x 10’) communally-made embroidery that in turn is a matrix for an edition of watermarks in handmade paper. At the onset, the intention was for the project to create space for conversations on loss, extinction, habitat decimation, memory, myth and revitalization.

“How is Your Rhinoceros Inspiring You?” is the debut exhibition of the embroidery and the watermark together, as well as some of the related artwork generated over the evolution of the project. Two sewing circles will be held in the gallery during the exhibition, Sunday, November 10, 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., and Saturday, November 30, 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.