6/13/2005: Mud hippo

Nice work! The official caption has it: a performer reads a newspaper on the back of a mud sculpture of a hippopotamus, created by Puerto Rico-based artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, at the arts Biennale in Venice.

That looks more real than the baby elephant did.

Amazing work.

But one does have to ask what the artistic import of having the guy reading the paper on it's back is ... it's cool all by itself.

Making it out of mud would mean that the finish would be easy to do. Seeing as hippos are generally coated in the stuff any way.

I would prefer to see a performance artist reading the newspaper from the back of a live, angry hippo with an impacted wisdom tooth (if hippos get wisdom teeth that is).
THAT would be a performance.

You have an eye for art.

Very good work indeed. So realistic.
Is it just me, or........well, either the person is very small or the hippo is very large. I didn't think these guys got that big.

This is the only picture I found that had a good comparison to the size of a hippo to a human. I apologize for it's graphic nature. It didn't suprise me that I couldn't find more pictures, because they are dangerous animals, and very deadly.

http://www.zwsafaris.com/photogaller...ER%20HIPPO.jpg

Forgive me, but here is a comparison

Looks like the mud hippo is probably is bigger than a normal hippo. The person also looks petite. Maybe she had to be lightweight because of what the sculpture is made out of?

Thanx, Sweets.
That puts it in perspective. I do think the sculpture is a little large but not too bad. At any rate this is a very good peice of work.
Imagine that- an art work that I won't rant about & ridicule.
The extra size makes it even more intresting. 9.5

Maybe it just wasn't mean to be life-size.
That picture of the dead hippo and the idiots that killed it is disgusting.

This site has some good footage of hippos and water buffalos charging and, well,ahhh, getting their brains blown out.

http://www.nitroexpresssafaris.com/

Click on Play Video, not for the faint of heart! Here's and image from his photos section for perspective

Since it's mud I guess they won't be moving it anywhere.

I wonder if there's a substructure. If not I bet it's one heavy exhibit.
Either way XOB, You're right. It would be hell to move, if not impossible.

[quote]A little known law in the Texas Civil Code:
"It is illegal to discharge a firearm while engaged in a sexual act"

A little known law in L.A., it is an offence to lick a toad. Apparently, this is because people were getting high off them! Fortunately some may say it's not illegal in Philadelphia

The nitroexpress hunting safari pages were a bit much for me- seeing all those lions with dead eyes. I'm used to seeing the inteligence and spirit of the animal. I'm not against hunting in the abstract but it seems that those animals are too magnificent- and rare- to hunt.

The whole safari mentality is off-putting to me as a hunter. I get grief about it from other hunters, and anti-hunters think I'm talking out both sides of my mouth. But I'm not. If hippo meat is delicious and nutritious, then fry me up a chunk, and happy hunting. But the business of shooting something, beheading it, then displaying the result in one's game room without even consuming an ounce of meat is just...stupid.

I understand the adrenaline rush of facing something bigger and meaner than you and defeating it. I don't really care if it's "fair" to the animal, particularly. I even understand the penis-envy "glory" part. Not my cup of tea, but I get it.

But half of these safari things aren't even hard. Sleep under air conditioning, drive out to the kill site, pick one out, pull the trigger, and pose for a picture. Anyone out there who does these trips care to differ? I'm not particularly experienced with safariying.

It depends on whether there's some hidden platform under it that a forklift could get at.

I subscribe to the rule "If you hunt it, you eat it." I not really sure how a lion or hippo or even a stinkass waterbuffalo tastes but I'm guessin' not so good. So whats left but to knock the head off and hang it next to the painting of the wife and kids on the wall or stuffing the thing and proping it up in the corner...tossing the rest in the trash...what a waste.

I personally hunt birds (dove, quail, duck) and I consume what I catch. My friend keeps telling me I need to stuff and mount my birds, no thanks. I don't need that kind of affrimation. Some folks need this. The video on Nitro's website indicates this completely.

God forbid if the tables were turned.
I've always wanted to see a hunter going thru the woods & run across a bunch of human heads hanging on the trees.
If the wildlife had weapons, we'd be extinct.
Think about it.

Only a percentage of those not prepared to defend themselves would be out of the gene pool.

Our great state leaders, which had 2 special meetings this year at 36k a day are looking at baiting deer as being legal. Hunters my ass!

What the hell do they do with exhibits like this anyway after the new wears off?
I mean If all works were kept perpetually, where would we keep 'em?
..........there goes the trailer park..........hehe.....

[quote=Packey]I subscribe to the rule "If you hunt it, you eat it." I not really sure how a lion or hippo or even a stinkass waterbuffalo tastes but I'm guessin' not so good. So whats left but to knock the head off and hang it next to the painting of the wife and kids on the wall or stuffing the thing and proping it up in the corner...tossing the rest in the trash...what a waste.

[quote]

I used to subscribe to this rule too Packey - but not anymore.

Partner and i went fox shooting of late and we just left the dead bodies there in the paddock. A waste.. maybe. But i didn't feel bad about it at all.. they came into my property nights before and mauled and killed all my chickens, roosters, ducks and hens.. and only consumed one of them. Revenge killing it twas.. and i'd do it again.

But as for killing something that has done nothing wrong i.e a tiger/ a kangaroo/ a cockatoo.. there is no way i would consent to it, nor anyone else doing so unless it was for consumption.

And i also think it should always be done quickly and as painlessly as possible.. NOT shooting a large animal with a pissy 22rifle and letting it rivel in pain.

I know someone who has eaten lion - says it's tasty (just to answer the question) - In his case Mountain lion, but I've heard the "African Plains Lion" is also tasty.

Shooting just for a trophy = wrong
Hunting to eat it = OK particularly if the game in question has an overpopulation problem - see eastern White Tailed deer - we have actually increased their habitat, while decreasing the habitat and population of their preditors - just about the only 3 population controls on them are 1)Hunting, 2)Cars and 3)Starvation (BTW if I remember right - cars are actually a bigger killer than hunters)

re: animals hunting humans while humans are hunting

This happens all the time. But the mountain lion who assesses you as you walk through the woods wisely chooses not to go for it -- there's easier prey. And try walking up on a bull moose during the rut right about sundown; the matchup is even at best (slightly weighted in the moose's favor). The badger living under the line shack we spent the night in in Wyoming didn't feel particularly undermatched when it came barrelling out towards us, teeth popping. The alligator that found its way into our stock tank in TX after the creek flooded was 8 feet long and hid in 4-foot-tall grass. On the way out to kill/chase it off we found the skin of a rattlesnake that was probably as long as the gator...or it looked that way to me at 11 years old. Outside of our urban environment, humans are anything BUT the top of the totem pole. Cry me a river, Ingrid Newkirk.

I could certainly have put the fox skins to good use ...