Big five 2016

Eckart Hahn, born in 1971, painted "Big Five" perhaps in the early 21st century. It depicts five African animals, yet their arrangement feels unnatural, like a precarious totem. The title, "Big Five," alludes to the colonial hunting term referring to the most difficult and dangerous animals to hunt on foot in Africa: the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and buffalo. These animals are here robbed of their natural context and, like trophies, presented as an assembled unnatural object. Hahn’s painting hints at the artificiality of our relationship with nature. It comments on how we collect, classify, and display nature, transforming living creatures into objects of study or symbols of power. To fully grasp Hahn's critique, we might turn to studies of colonial history, hunting practices, and museum collections. “Big Five” is not just a painting of animals; it's a reflection on how cultural institutions shape our understanding of the natural world.