Collage A1 — Containment

This work was inspired by two things: Joseph Cornell’s shadow boxes and the personal dream I had about rabbit-sized elephants.

What I wanted to convey through the work was a sense of despair, especially in relation to the situation the elephant species faces. Hunted and killed for their ivory tusks, elephants are endangered. At the same time, many elephants are captured and trained to do tricks or other tasks such as transporting goods. Yet, these elephants are usually chained up and treated poorly.

The solution to this problem is not simple. Elephants, caught up in the complexity of politics and human greed, are essentially trapped by the same people who can save them. This is symbolic in the way the various elements of the work such as the elephant heads and the elephants trapped behind bars are now contained in a man-made box. Despair is not a loud emotion; it is a feeling of hopelessness and containment, an acknowledgement of one’s inability to change one’s situation. It is the silent scream that no one can hear.