Lemur Conservation Foundation hosted Alexis Rockman and his partner
Dorothy Spears on a trip to Madagascar in December 2009. Accompanied by
Penelope Bodry-Sanders (LCF Founder), they met field biologists and
conservationists and witnessed first hand the astonishing biota of the
island, particularly its charming and charismatic primates. The hope was
that Rockman, an artist noted for his beautiful, provocative, and often
disturbing images, would create a painting depicting the plight of
lemurs facing unprecedented threats in Madagascar to help LCF in its
mission to help lemurs survive into the future.
Alexis Rockman created "Fragments," a beautiful and disquieting image
about the loss of biodiversity in general and of lemurs specifically. In
the painting, a rare red ruffed lemur is "out on a limb" of the degraded
central tree that offers little to eat for the creatures that inhabit
it. Pan down the tree and you see earth moving equipment and trucks
exiting with the plunder of Madagascar's biodiversity. Further, the
topography below hints at Africa, India and Southeast Asia, areas also
at risk. The runny, washed-out paint speaks to one of Earth’s most
valuable but disappearing “hot spots.”
Alexis Rockman’s work is currently the subject of a major exhibition, A
Fable for Tomorrow, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington
D.C. through May 8, 2011.
