MIDAS HART’S 11-FOOT RHINO COVERED IN U.S. CURRENCY AND GOLD GOES ON VIEW IN LOS ANGELES
Midas Hart, Rhinos Don’t Grow on Trees, installed at Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA
Detail of Midas Hart’s Rhinos Don’t Grow on Trees, constructed from genuine U.S. currency, 24-karat gold leaf, resin and fiberglass.
Midas Hart’s one-of-a-kind sculpture confronts the uneasy relationship between money, value and the natural world
More than 11 feet long, the one-of-a-kind rhinoceros is constructed from genuine U.S. currency, 24-karat gold leaf, resin and fiberglass. Hart uses scale and symbols of material wealth as a form of visual provocation, drawing the viewer toward an animal whose survival in the wild is increasingly precarious.
At the center of the work is a larger question: What do we lose when the living world is reduced to what can be extracted from it?
Created as both a fine-art object and a meditation on value, "Rhinos Don’t Grow on Trees" examines the tension between what is deeply sacred and what becomes transactional. At its core, the work questions humanity’s tendency to look at the living world in terms of what can be extracted from it rather than recognizing its intrinsic value.
The questions embedded in the work remain strikingly relevant as threatened species around the world continue to face pressures from wildlife trafficking, habitat loss and the commercial value assigned to natural resources.
Midas Hart Studio is currently in conversation with conservation organizations and cultural partners about extending the work beyond exhibition, with the goal of turning it into a catalyst for greater awareness and action around rhino conservation.
ABOUT MIDAS HART
Midas Hart is a contemporary artist working primarily in conceptual installation and mixed media. The practice begins with a question: Has humanity lost sight of what is valuable? Through material, scale and symbols of wealth, Hart’s work examines value, perception and the systems through which society assigns meaning and worth.
ARTWORK
Midas Hart
"Rhinos Don’t Grow on Trees", 2016
Genuine U.S. currency, 24-karat gold leaf, resin and fiberglass
135 × 67 × 45 in. (343 × 170 × 114 cm)
One of a kind
Elena Alexandra
Midas Hart
studio@midashart.com
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