DEATH OF LA PLATA DOLFIN CALF,
SANTA TERESITA, ARGENTINA - SELFIE
metallic wire, recycled paper and a camera tripod

106 x 52 x 35 cm

2025

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In February 2016, a La Plata dolphin calf was carried from the sea and passed between a group of beachgoers on the shores of Santa Teresita, Argentina, for the purpose of taking selfies. Removed from its natural environment and handled as an object of entertainment, the animal eventually died.

Its material language is deliberately modest: metallic wire, recycled paper and a camera tripod, these ordinary, utilitarian objects' mirroring the subject's societal image.

The body was initially constructed in the form of a living calf before being bent and twisted into the posture of a dead animal. This transformation from animation to lifelessness is inscribed directly into the making of the sculpture. A camera tripod pierces the body, thereby functioning as a reference to the circumstances of his demise and as a sculptural instrument of objectification.

Echoing the artist’s wider practice, the origami elements create a contrasting chromatic and ethereal presence. Emerging from the body, the cranes evoke a residual and transformative energy, which both sustains life and departs from it, standing against the rigidity of the metallic structure.

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