The Wick List

Viewing The Lost Rhino: An Art Installation with Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg

The Wick Culture - Installation view of The Substitute in 'Apocalypse -End Without End' at Natural History Museum, Bern, 2022. Photograph: Nelly Rodriguez.Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Video still from The Substitute, 2019, paired video installation (projections), 6 min 18 secs. © Alexandra Daisy

Above Installation view of The Substitute in ‘Apocalypse -End Without End’ at Natural History Museum, Bern, 2022. Photograph: Nelly Rodriguez.Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Video still from The Substitute, 2019, paired video installation (projections), 6 min 18 secs. © Alexandra Daisy

The Wick Culture - Taxidermy southern white rhino © The Trustees of The Natural History Museum, London,2022. All Rights Reserved.

The Wick Culture - The Rhinoceros', Albrecht Durer, Germany, c.1515 © The Trustees of the British Museum

Above The Rhinoceros’, Albrecht Durer, Germany, c.1515 © The Trustees of the British Museum

The Wick Culture - Cardiac cells made in the lab from preserved cells of Angalifu, the last male northern white rhino in the United States who died in 2015 © San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

Above Cardiac cells made in the lab from preserved cells of Angalifu, the last male northern white rhino in the United States who died in 2015 © San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

The Wick Culture - Exhibition The Lost Rhino 3 © Trustees of the Natural History Museum London

Above Exhibition The Lost Rhino 3 © Trustees of the Natural History Museum London

Above The Rhinoceros’, Albrecht Durer, Germany, c.1515 © The Trustees of the British Museum

Above Cardiac cells made in the lab from preserved cells of Angalifu, the last male northern white rhino in the United States who died in 2015 © San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

Above Exhibition The Lost Rhino 3 © Trustees of the Natural History Museum London

The Lost Rhino: An Art Installation with Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg
Natural History Museum, London

Until 19 March 2023
www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/the-lost-rhino

When Sudan, the last surviving northern white male rhino, died in 2018, the extinction of the subspecies seemed certain. While two of his female relatives, Najin and Fatun, still survive, neither can carry a pregnancy to term.

But there is hope for the northern whites yet. Scientists who collected semen and eggs from the last living members of the subspecies hope to implant embryos into a female southern white rhino as part of a repopulation programme. If the project is successful, it will change the fate of endangered species around the world. But the plan has raised challenging questions around the ethics of de-extinction.

All of this and more is explored in The Lost Rhino, a free art installation conceived by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg that explores extinction, conservation and advanced new reproductive and genetic technologies at the Natural History Museum. You’ll come face to face with a digitally recreated, life-size northern white rhino, prompting you to question the paradox of our preoccupation with creating new life forms, while neglecting existing ones. This is art at its most urgent. Go before it’s too late!