THE RHINOCEROS PROJECT
In 1515 a Sultan gave a King Manual I of Portugal a Black Indian Rhinoceros which to most at that time was a mythical creature to most Europeans. Albrecht Durer memorialized it in a print. The King placed it shackled in the depths of a ship to be a gift to then Pope Leo. The ship sank and the black rhino was lost. It became extinct on our planet in 2011. In 2017 there are only 3 Northern WHITE RHINOCEROS 
remaining. Artist Michelle Wilson see the Rhinoceros as a foreshadowing of the most pressing environmental issue in our post-colonial world, as this magnificent creature is decimated and fades from human memory. She is using her gifts in handmade paper techniques as an eloquent metaphor for this species’ disappearance by creating a ghostly image to be used as a pattern for hundreds of people to then embroider its outline on muslin to recreate Durer’s Rhinoceros line by line. These sewing circles will begin in San Francisco and it is hoped that they will provoke dialogue. The final stage of this project will have all the embroidered parts put together as a whole life sized rhino that will then be filled with paper pulp three times and these works of art will be auctioned off with the funds going to their partner THE INTERNATIONAL RHINO FOUNDATION.
rhinocerosproject@tumblr.com
