Clara

Artistic work - installation
Stored in
Artist's collection
Work technique
bricks on pallets, tobacco leaves, vinyl wall writing
Year
Work dimensions
Ambient dimension

The work is inspired by the story of an Indian rhinoceros called Clara, imported in 1740 by a command ship of the Dutch East India Company. The animal was the protagonist of a tour lasting sixteen years, potracted through various European cities, becoming in spite of itself a sort of exotic tourist attraction with which to entertain the courts of the time. Biscotti recalls the symbolic presence of Clara through a rectangular brick construction of the same type of those adopted by the fleets of the East India Company to balance the direct ships towards the colonies, on which she imprints the image of a rhinoceros. The amount of material from to use is also calibrated based on the average weight of an adult rhino. Some piles of tobacco leaves placed near the stony block instead refer to little adequate food with which the animal was fed, while a series of writings on the wall reveal the sum of money needed to purchase Clara. Through the installation, the artist highlights the complexity of the relationship between human and non-human agents, as well as the relationship between East and West and the legacy of European colonialism about trade routes and policies of expansionism, extended to abuse of nature itself.