'King Kong Rhino' − Waiting for Albrecht Dürer, Palazzo Sturm, Bassano del Grappa

King Kong Rhino − Waiting for #albrechtdurer

Connecting ancient and contemporary art, research and tradition but also drawing, engraving and sculpture, is one of the keypoints in the activity of the civic museum.
This idea is once again becoming part of a strategy for the promotion of cultural heritage. Engraving, an art which is well known as a genius loci of international relevance, is even more enriched by the presence of an artist who influenced all art history: #albrechtdurer.

— THE ARTWORK

Symbol of justice and power, King Kong Rhino is made of stainless mirror-steel to reflect both the sky and the way it changes daily, but also the surrounding environment.
In order to create it the artist #lijenshih decided to turn the rhino, a majestic creature which has always been considered as a symbol of luck and kindness in Chinese culture, into a piece of contemporary art, a heroic and modern icon of the “real survivor”

“I’ve always considered the rhino as a creature which is close to me. It’s always been sorrowful to me to follow the news about the endangered life of rhinos
in the world and therefore I decided to create a work aimed at witnessing its beauty and make #people aware about the concrete risk of extinction that rhinos run - says #lijenshih - On a spiritual level, my sculpture embodies many thoughts that are deeply rooted in ancient Chinese culture, while, in terms of style and expression, it represents contemporaneity”.

The steel sculpture of the Rhino, with its armour, conveys a strong image of resistance. A human fingerprint is impressed in the horn to represent the predatory action carried out by human beings but, at the same time, it is also meant to recall the importance of the respect due to all animal species on Earth.
King Kong Rhino was selected to represent the annual issue at Shanghai Art Fair in 2011 and it was placed in the main square of Kelti International Co in Taipei.

— THE ARTIST

Li-Jen Shih was born in Changhua County, Taiwan, in 1955, and started his career in China and Taiwan. He is interested in rhinos and in their symbolic power, so he creates various series of sculptures, among which the famous King Kong Rhino that has now become his most famous and characteristic work.

Shih is an artist who is strongly connected to tradition and who uses a contemporary language to reveal an ancient traditional subject.
Nowadays, his rhinos sculptures populate the city centres of the most important Chinese cities: Taipei, Taichung and southern Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai and the Shandong area. Everyone, including children, loves to gather around the Li-Jen Shih’s rhinos and the artist himself was even given the nickname “The Rhino Papa”, the artist of the rhinos.

— RHINOS: A SPECIES THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION

Among the 30 rare species of Rhinos existing in the world, only five, living in Asia and Africa, still survive. The horns trade is threatening the existence of these impressive animals and their peaceful nature. Over the last three years, 1,350 horns have been poached.

Traditional Chinese medicine uses rhino horn powder to treat fever, epilepsy, malaria, poisoning and abscesses, thus making it a truly valuable material granting high profits on the illegal market. In Yemen the rhino horn is used to decorate the handle of “Jambiya”, the traditional curved dagger.

This emergency situation has inspired the work of the artist #lijenshih towards the theme of respect for the environment and ecology, making it the main goal of his artistic career, in order to remind mankind of the attention and care that must be addressed to nature and put in every action.

The work will be on display on the Belvedere at Palazzo Sturm from 15th December.

King Kong Rhino

19 December 2018 - 14 December 2020

www.museibassano.it