Ali Cabbar: I Shot the Last Rhino

Ali Cabbar’s urban-space installation, I Shot the Last Rhino, is a requiem to wildlife that has been destroyed by human agency. The project, specially created for Yanköşe, a nonprofit contemporary art platform in Istanbul, consists of 11 canvases of animal heads on 20-meter-high walls in one of the busiest streets along the Bosporus. Envisioned as a monument to all magnificent animals facing extinction, the work highlights the destruction of wildlife through the concept of a hunter’s game room. 

Ali Cabbar arranges the architecturally challenging walls of Yanköşe like a trophy room and names his work for one of the three-meter portraits on the wall; that of the Northern White Rhinoceros which became extinct in 2018 because of illegal hunting for their horns. The work is inspired by—some fake, some true—news of wild animals taking over cities during the covid-19 confinement and by massive bushfires at the end of last year in Australia that killed a record number of animals.  

Today, humans are hurting the well-being of our planet by driving a million species of animals and plants into extinction and rapidly destroying the ecosystems that they and other species need. Highlighting the fact that humans are themselves the victims of their destructive behavior, Ali Cabbar includes his own mounted head on the wall with the other animals.  

Like the artist’s previous project Monster on genetically modified food, I Shot the Last Rhino testifies to the effects of the Anthropocene epoch in which human activities dominate the planetary machinery, and seeks to persuade the viewer to reconsider the human-nature relationship in light of a global health crisis. 

About Ali Cabbar
Ali Cabbar is a Brussels based mixed-media artist who addresses political and social issues in his work. Employing symbols and black humor, he uses a nondidactic narrative to provoke the viewer to search for what is hidden behind the obvious. In his recent research-driven projects, Cabbar delves into the effects of gentrification, political propaganda and environmental issues. His artist book, System Error, is published in October 2020 by Masa Yayinlari.

Cabbar’s solo exhibitions include Eldorado at Fine Art Museum, Split (2019); Monster at Adas (2019); Ugly at Depo (2016); Placebo Effect at Operation Room (2015); Disquiet Shadow at Yapı Kredi, Istanbul (2010); Escape at Le Botanique, Brussels (2006).

He has also participated in group shows, including Climbing Through the Tide at Kamel Lazaar Foundation’s B7L9 project space, Tunisia (2019); YKB Collection Exhibition Helix, Turkey (2017); Animacall, Greece (2011); Memento Mori, The F.U.E.L. Collection, USA (2008); 13th International Festival of Computer Arts, Slovenia (2007); Rejection Episodes, Vooruit, Belgium (2006); Biennial International de Gravure IV, MAMAC, Belgium (2003).

About Yanköşe
Yanköşe is a nonprofit platform for art in the public domain, realized by Kahve Dünyası, Turkey’s largest coffee chain. It provides a space of 260 square meters of walls for two invited artists every year to showcase their experimental contemporary artworks. A selection committee of five people—Kahve Dünyası executives Dilara Altınkılıç Kutmangil and Kaan Altınkılıç, art critic Evrim Altuğ, curator Fulya Erdemci, and graphic designer Bülent Erkmen—assesses the artists’ projects. A magazine-size publication accompanies the exhibitions.