Signature of a Rhinoceros
2026 – Latest Traces of Transformation
During the transformation, the missing horn returns. It was made as a separate element and can be reattached to the rhinoceros with a snap fastener. What was taken away in the original drawing can be restored in the transformed work.
The drawing itself is also attached to the painted canvas with snap fasteners. This allows it to be removed, repositioned and recombined. The composition remains changeable: the work shown here is not a definitive endpoint, but the latest trace of an ongoing transformation.
The title Signature of a Rhinoceros refers to a signature as a recognizable and personal trace. Just as a perpetrator leaves behind a recurring mark, this rhinoceros carries its own trace with it: the act of revenge, the missing horn and the possibility of restoring it.
Traces of Transformation
Between Rhino’s Revenge and Signature of a Rhinoceros, the drawing passed through several temporary states.
It was combined with the 2006 oil painting You with Your Beauty, You Just Knocked Me Out and with a canvas bearing the letters MAGA. As part of the Drawing in Motion project, these works were attached together to a drawing board and further interwoven.
The drawing was coloured again, detached and materially altered. The reverse was reinforced with fusible interfacing, while the front was partially covered with transparent PVC, and folds were fixed in place with stitched seams. Eventually, the rhinoceros regained its horn, and the drawing was attached with snap fasteners to a canvas marked by traces of paint.
The photographs do not show a linear development towards a single finished result, but rather different traces of a work that continually changes in form, meaning and context.
The original work — Rhino’s Revenge (1995)
The starting point for this transformation is the 1995 drawing Rhino’s Revenge. A rhinoceros whose horn has been sawn off takes revenge on the hunter who mutilated him by biting off the man’s penis.
The drawing presents a reversal of power. The animal is a victim of human violence, yet turns against its attacker and wounds him in a way that is both physical and symbolic.