Decaying Biodiversity

Back in December 2021, I had the opportunity to visit Sculpture Month Houston’s Altamira 2021 exhibition at the Silos and I came across Shawn Smith’s Harmony of Decay. This sculpture depicts a rhinoceros crafted out of wooden blocks who lays on his side while numerous colorful fungi are the decomposers of the rhino’s organic matter. Although the artwork beautifully depicts the relationship between the rhino and the fungi, the artist highlights the death of the mammal.

Smith sheds light on poaching as the primary reason for the exponential extinction of the Northern White Rhino. Rhinos are poached for their horns which are sold illegally on the black market for primarily decorative and medicinal purposes. In his art activism, he expresses the importance of biodiversity and the severe effects of human actions.

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The population of the Rhinos has significantly decreased, from the historic population of 500,000 to the current population of approximately 27,000. They have roamed the earth for many centuries and are essential to the environment. These large mammals are responsible for geo-forming the landscape; they consume a considerable amount of vegetation and create waterholes that eventually reshape the ecosystem periodically.

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Their dung fertilizes the soil and sustains a habitat for numerous organisms such as the dung beetle. Additionally, rhinos are infested with rhino flies and ticks provide nourishment for oxpeckers and terrapins.

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Rhinos are targeted by humans for their horns and for poaching as they belong to the Big Five. Game hunters have termed the Big Five as large African animals and target rhinos, elephants, buffalos, lions, and leopards. This term has been monetized as an attraction for expensive and exclusive game lodges.
Humans, collectively, have a large impact on the environment. However, we can come together and make a change.

Ice Would Suffice

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How swift, how far
the sea
carries a body from shore.
Empires fail, species are lost,
spotted frogs
and tufted puffins forsaken.
After eons of fauna and flora, hominids have stood
for mere years
baffled brains atop battered shoulders.
In a murky blanket of heavens
an icy planet
made of diamond spins.
Our sun winks like the star
it was
billions of years ago, without ambition.
We bury bodies in shallow dirt, heedless of lacking space
or how long
our makeshift planet will host us.

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Risa Denenberg