The Most Beautiful of all Mothers (II) – Hippo

Hippo, the homonymous animal is portrayed while carrying a heavy load to safety, including the appearance of a giraffe. Both described with realistic precision, the two animals are however made of strongly different materials, almost as if they inhabited two distinct worlds. While the hippopotamus is made of fiberglass - the same material often used for the construction of boats - traces of organic matter are visible in the giraffe, including bones, earth, waste, but also fragments of glass, cement and pigments. Like a vision coming from a near future, the work seems to allude to further dramatic migrations about to upset our planet.
Hippo is part of a series of eighteen sculptures depicting other resin animals including a gorilla, a gazelle, a rhinoceros, as part of a series entitled The most Beautiful of All Mothers.